HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Here is a nice video showing the evolution of microorganisms in action:

"The Evolution of Bacteria on a “Mega-Plate” Petri Dish" https://vimeo.com/180908160

The original paper about the experiment:

"Spatiotemporal microbial evolution on antibiotic landscapes" https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aag0822

I'll believe it when they make a megaplate with that stuff.

megaplate: https://player.vimeo.com/video/180908160

⬐ Terr_

Previously on HN as: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12456938

⬐ djmips

Could this training actually produce some harmful organisms or will they be out competed by their antibiotic susceptible counterparts.

⬐ sdjbslkjvs

Is there any horizontal gene transfer going on here and if so how can we visualize it ?

⬐ rcarrigan87

I had read the article but didn't see the video. Happy I came across this, really amazing stuff.

Obviously, real life is way more complicated. But why don't we see antibiotic resistance happening faster in the wild, as the video would suggest...?

⬐ bobdole1234

You do, but your immune system really only needs a small boost to kill the infection, so while you might end up with a significant fraction of resistant bacteria at the end of a 14 day run of antibiotics, your immune system kills them all eventually.

⬐ seanp2k2

Not a doctor or biologist but I'm guessing that the evolution seemed so rapid was due to the perfect lab conditions and the ramping of dosage instead of just from nothing to very strong. Also, it's giving the bacteria a safe home from which to launch their next wave of attacks, vs taking the no antibiotic zone and dropping an anti-biotic bomb on it as would be the case if you e.g. Had an infection then began a strong course of antibiotics. In the human body you'd also have other factors (immune system etc) working against the growth, so it's not just the antibiotics which would be killing off the bacteria.