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This story from Earth.com covers a recent study in Nature Communications co-authored by MBL Senior Scientists Irina Arkhipova and David Mark Welch, along with members of their labs.

A microscopic marvel of our planet, the bdelloid rotifer, is an aquatic critter not much larger than the width of a hair. Fascinatingly, these tiny creatures can arm themselves against infections using ��ɫ��Ƶ�stolen��ɫ��Ƶ� antibiotics from bacteria.

This intriguing discovery was made by researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Stirling, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole.

Rotifers: Shaping the future of antibiotics

No bigger than a quarter of a millimeter, these bdelloid rotifers are resourceful survivors. When exposed to a potentially fatal fungal infection, they activate hundreds of bacterial and microbial genes they possess.

These genes churn out a diverse arsenal of antimicrobial weapons, including antibiotics, to fend off the invading pathogens.

��ɫ��Ƶ�When we translated the DNA code to see what the stolen genes were doing, we had a surprise. The main genes were instructions for chemicals that we didn��ɫ��Ƶ�t think animals could make ��ɫ��Ƶ� they looked like recipes for antibiotics,��ɫ��Ƶ� noted Chris Wilson, from the University of Oxford, a co-author involved in this study.

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