• Question: How can you stop microbes evolution ?

    Asked by Togyo to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      You can’t! But using maths my team can stop bacteria evolving resistance to antibiotics.

      Antibiotic resistance is hard work for the bacteria – if there are no antibiotics, being resistant is a disadvantage. Different antibiotics work in different ways, so most bacteria are only resistant to a few types of antibiotic at a time.

      So using maths my team tells the doctors to change round which antibiotics they use, so the bacteria don’t get used to a particular antibiotic and have time to evolve much resistance before a different type of antibiotic comes along and wipes out the resistant bacteria.

    • Photo: Matt Bilton

      Matt Bilton answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Unfortunately we can’t! Every time a bacteria divides it copies its DNA. Every time it copies its DNA there may be mistakes! These are mutations, and they can weaken the bacteria – or they can make it stronger.

      Apply a selective pressure – like, for example, antibiotics – and only those which are the strongest, or antibiotic resistant in this case, will remain.

      You can’t stop microbes from evolving, but we can stay one step ahead! If we use antibiotics very cleverly – only when we need to, and making sure we eradicate all the bacteria by completing our antibiotic treatment courses – we can make sure that we don’t accidentally select the most dangerous bacteria.

      In this way, maybe can’t stop bacteria evolving, but perhaps we can slow down the process! This gives scientists the best chance to discover and invent new antibiotics to replace the old ones as they steadily become less useful.

    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Microbes are able to evolve fairly rapidly and for some their lifespan is only about 20 minutes, so this means that many generations will fit into just one day! They are also able to share bits of DNA with each other which gives them an easy way to change. Evolution is not always to make them worse as if they kill their host they need to find another one to live in. Some argue that they adapt to be less severe in their natural host, so evolution is probably a good thing in this case.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      You cannot stop them evolving. Its just something they do

      You can try and encourage them to evolve in certain directions and not inother directions by manipulating their surroundings. Unfortunately, the widespread use of antibiotics has encourage them to evolve resistance. We now need to be imaginative with new types of drug that do not encourage the evolution of resistance.

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