The Problem
Scientists routinely mix an array of antibiotics to culture media to grow bacteria for studying. Bacteria are used ubiquitously (universally) in research because they are easily manipulated using a “wide variety of biological tools.” Among these tools for scientifically manipulating bacteria genes, in order to derive knowledge about the microbial world, are antibiotics and bacterial genes producing antibiotic resistance in bacteria (antibiotic resistance genes).
Genetic Markers
During research, genetic markers that associate with antibiotic resistance genes prove easy to work with and are reliable. As a result they are universally used with a selection of biological tools to explore gene selection, manipulation and isolation.
The Call for Stewardship
Dr. Laura Bowater of Norwich Medical School, part of the University of East Anglia, UK, calls for greater stewardship among scientists in their use of antibiotics for molecular biology and genetics research and in their use of antibiotic resistance genes as selectable genetic markers for genetic manipulation studies. The call is because safety measures and containment practices, once adequate to the scientific demand, now carry the risk of releasing antibiotics and genetically manipulated bacteria into the population through the environment. This carries the risk of adding to the global problem of antibiotic resistance.
Safety and Containment
Since these methods are now so commonplace and ubiquitous as to go almost unnoticed, safety and containment procedures, still in accord with the original 1973 procedures and research load, risk releasing antibiotics, used in bacteria cultures, and new antibiotic-resistant bacteria, developed during gene manipulation, into the environment, leading to the population, where “antibiotic resistance is a catastrophic threat.”
Student Practicals in Bacterial Genetics
As Bowater explains, in university training, students in laboratory practical classes “use antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes as disposable tools,” where inadequate attention and care is “taken to ensure [they] destroy and safely dispose of the bacteria.” Again, concerns for safety and containment raise the possibility of risk of releasing antibiotics and new laboratory designed antibiotic-resistant bacteria into the environment and population.
Broad-Host-Range Bacterial DNA Elements
Another concern Bowater has is that genetic resistance markers “are often cloned into broad-host-range plasmids.” Plasmids are independent genetic elements of bacterial DNA. One class of plasmids, R factors, endows bacteria with antibiotic resistance, which is why it poses a problem of safety and containment when used in genetic antibiotic research. Broad-host-range plasmids are those that can replicate in a wide number of bacterial species. Genetically manipulated bacteria containing R factor plasmids could spread antibiotic resistance to broad range of antibiotics if antibiotic resistance genes are inadvertently released into the environment.
Alternative to Antibiotics in Bacterial Genes in Research
Bowater suggests that research funding streams ought to be turned toward creating new antibiotics, ones that would not play a critical role in public welfare, or toward further developing synthetic antibiotics for the needs of research. She also points out that good stewardship requires setting a responsible example for the upcoming generation of scientists and requires developing safe, acceptable and responsible alternatives for them to use, alternatives that don’t risk antibiotics that are valuable to humanity and that can do harm if inadvertently released into the environment after genetic manipulation. Bowater says:
With the growth and fast advancement of synthetic biology, it is timely for us to consider other options and to teach the next generation of researchers by example how to truly value antibiotics by using them more responsibly. … I would like to ask … whether in this day and age, scientists’ reliance on antibiotic-based technologies is acceptable, necessary or responsible.
Dr. Bowater’s article “Antimicrobial stewardship: the scientists’ role?” was published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Oxford Press, on March 20.
