Bacteria develop resistance to drugs over time. This is a big problem facing the healthcare industry. The emergence of increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacteria can mean infections that are difficult or impossible to treat, leading to the death of sick people. Scientists working to make life possible on Mars could help solve the problem of drug-resistant bacteria.
One of the challenges for life on Mars is that there is perchlorate in the soil. These compounds may be toxic to humans.
Researchers from the Institute of Biology at Leiden University (Netherlands) are working on creating bacteria that can decompose perchlorate into chlorine and oxygen.
Scientists have replicated the gravity of Mars using a random positioning machine (RPM), which rotates biological samples along two independent axes. This machine constantly randomly changes the orientation of biological samples that do not have the ability to adapt to constant gravity in one direction. The machine can simulate partial gravity in stages between normal gravity, like on Earth, and complete weightlessness.
Bacteria grown in partial gravity become stressed because they cannot get rid of the waste around them. It is known that soil bacteria Streptomycetes begin to produce antibiotics under stress conditions. Scientists have noted that 70% of the antibiotics we currently use for treatment are derived from streptomycetes.
Growing bacteria in a random positioning machine could lead to an entirely new generation of antibiotics to which the bacteria have no immunity. This discovery is significant because the creation of new antibiotics is one of the most important areas of medical research.
Source: 3dnews.ru