Death by conformity

Mycobacteria increase their odds of surviving threats like antibiotic exposure by keeping their populations diverse. A Nature study has identified a new mycobacterial target that when deleted, stifles population diversity and boosts the efficiency of antibiotic killing.

While the majority of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria die shortly after antibiotic treatment, outlier cells with identical genotypes but more advantageous phenotypes persist longer, requiring patients to undergo months of treatment. "The fact that the mycobacteria are so heterogeneous is, we think, a dominant factor in why therapy takes so long," said study author E. Hesper Rego, an assistant professor of microbial pathogenesis at Yale University...