Ancient Bacterium Found in Romanian Ice Cave Shows Resistance to Modern Antibiotics

Ancient Bacterium Found in Romanian Ice Cave Shows Resistance to Modern Antibiotics
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Researchers in Scarisoara Ice Cave in north‑western Romania have discovered a 5,000‑year‑old bacterium that exhibits resistance to multiple modern antibiotics, a finding that sheds light on the ancient origins of antimicrobial resistance.

The bacterial strain, identified as Psychrobacter SC65A.3, was extracted from deep within the glacier of the ice cave by a team of Romanian scientists. According to reporting by Agence France‑Presse and research published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, laboratory analysis showed the microbe is resistant to 10 commonly used antibiotics, despite having lived in isolation long before such drugs existed.

Genome sequencing revealed the bacterium carries more than 100 genes associated with drug resistance. Researchers said the discovery demonstrates that antimicrobial resistance is a natural phenomenon that pre‑dates the clinical use of antibiotics.

“This finding shows that resistance did not begin with modern antibiotics,” said Dr. Cristina Puhoaria, a biologist at the Bucharest Institute of Biology, noting that ancient microbes may hold clues about how resistance genes evolved in microbial communities over millennia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that antimicrobial resistance is among the most serious global health threats, undermining the effectiveness of essential medicines and complicating the treatment of infections worldwide. Scientists say studying ancient resistant bacteria could improve understanding of resistance mechanisms and inform future strategies to combat drug‑resistant infections.