Stealth Technology Maintains Fitness After Sex: How 'DNA Parasites' Can Increase Spread Of ...

... Pathogens can become superbugs without their even knowing it, research published today in Science shows. 'Stealth' plasmids -- circular 'DNA parasites' of bacteria that can carry antibiotic-resistance genes -- produce a protein that increases the chances of spread of the antibiotic-resistant strain. The team, from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK, suggest that low-cost plasmids, described for the first time in the study, are a threat to use of antibiotics. ...