Finding genetic culprits that drive antibiotic resistance: Genome-wide association study in disease-causing bacteria paves way for clinical tool
Saturday, August 9, 2014 - 13:00
in Health & Medicine
A powerful new tool has been developed that could help in developing more effective treatment and control strategies for antibiotic resistance within the next decade. Researchers used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to find the single-letter changes in the DNA of Streptococcus pneumoniae that enable it to evade antibiotic treatment. Until now, GWAS has been able to identify only general areas where DNA changes have occurred. However, by using a rich data set of over 3,000 samples, researchers have been able to get precise data on the locations of changes that cause resistance.