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This story from Earth.com covers a recent study in Nature Communications co-authored by MBLSenior Scientists Irina Arkhipova and David Mark Welch, along with members of their labs.

A microscopic marvel of our planet, the bdelloid rotifer, is an aquatic critter not much larger than the width of a hair. Fascinatingly, these tiny creatures can arm themselves against infections using “stolen” antibiotics from bacteria.

This intriguing discovery was made by researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Stirling, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole.

Rotifers: Shaping the future of antibiotics

No bigger than a quarter of a millimeter, these bdelloid rotifers are resourceful survivors. When exposed to a potentially fatal fungal infection, they activate hundreds of bacterial and microbial genes they possess.

These genes churn out a diverse arsenal of antimicrobial weapons, including antibiotics, to fend off the invading pathogens.

“When we translated the DNA code to see what the stolen genes were doing, we had a surprise. The main genes were instructions for chemicals that we didn’t think animals could make – they looked like recipes for antibiotics,” noted Chris Wilson, from the University of Oxford, a co-author involved in this study.

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