Watch antibiotic resistance evolve | Science News

E. coli evolved resistance to antibiotics as they grew across a giant petri dish coated with increasing concentrations of drugs. At the end of the experiment, the bacteria near the center of the plate could withstand a dose of antibiotics 1,000 times higher than that tolerated by the starting bacteria.

Video: M. Baym, R. Kishony, R. Groleau, T. Lieberman, R. Chait

[jeffreycliff]

This video should REALLY be creative commons rather than youtube standard license. Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to billions of people, living and yet to be born and this video should be shown to every man, woman and child (and translated so that everyone will understand it)

[iminlalalandever]

The man who discovered Penicillin predicted that antibiotic resistance would be man's own fault. It's amazing how bacteria can go the lengths to keep surviving but terrifying that our own ignorance could lead to our demise.

[BendcA]

This is why I dislike parents who drag their kids to the doctor and insist they get AB's every time they get a cold. Or even worse pet owners who do the same.

[AnFearCiuin]

0:05 "We ended up building a petri dish, except that it's 2 feet by 4 feet"
Me: Hooked from the beginning.

[kimkat]

I don't buy antibiotic soap because of this. I wish companies would stop making it.

[anxietyatitsfinest]

This is exactly why we should develop bacteriophages more

[ThrottleKitty]

How can people claim evolution isn't real when you can literally watch it happening? :D

[tequilacollins]

Great experiment & presentation, but scary AF.

[umachan]

How many generations is that? I checked the link but you need to sign up and I don't do that.

[kevinmckeegan]

Congratulations on producing a beautiful experiment and video demonstrating evolution "in action". And thank you for raising awareness, in a very direct way, about antibiotic resistance. Well done.

[AsFewFalseThingsAsPossible]

I presume the different coloured lines represent particular mutations, from the common ancestor of the dark blue original type.
It goes to show that some sequences of mutation appear more likely than others. Notice that the population on the top left went dark blue to lighter blue to teal blue but the one below it went directly dark blue to teal blue as did the one on the right middle and right bottom (which went no further). Eventually the right hand population middle strand went to red, (including the pathway of without going via orange) and the left hand side only seems (not sure of the colour on my monitor) to have made it once, BUT still achieved a resistant population via two end mutations. 

This also shows how, if one were to blindly take a sample of E. coli DNA and sequence it, one could predict approximately where on the plate it came from. In other words what conditions it was living in. The validity of inferring evolutionary conditions (climate, etc) and history from DNA is supported by this demonstration.

[jonathankrimer]

Can they put the 1 beside the 1000 and see what happens?

[GustavoMerchan]

Quite terrifying. Will be able to create better antibiotics faster than bacteria can develop resistance?

[alyssachiu]

Hi, can I use this for our video project? Thank youuu

[Mindraker]

What's that white spot in the middle? Penicillin contamination?

[innate-videos]

Superb demonstration, thank you. I wonder how it would go with two different antibiotics.

[hopefrequencies]

What specific Bacteria was used to "Bait" the growth?

[TyroTalks]

This is only a demonstration, not an experiment.

The E.Coli was allowed to reside within the "safe zone" with no resistance as it built up immunity to antibiotics. An accurate experiment would be to allow E.Coli to spread within a "safe zone" and then flood that zone with antibiotics, up to the lethal concentration needed for E.Coli. repeat the process a hundred thousand times or so and then you'd have an accurate depiction of how much E.Coli adapts

[java]

Is this mutating or selective reproduction? Are they a new new bacteria?

[akshaymalwade]

At 1.07, the narrator says - at the boundary the organism needs to accumulate a new mutation to cross the boundary. I don't think that necessarily true. A previous mutation before hitting the boundary (maybe the mutation at the previous boundary) can be enough to take it into final 1000x band.