Alliance of Bacterial Strains Disables Antibiotics
抗生素不敌菌株联盟

Two different antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains have a protective relationship in which each disables a different antibiotic, allowing both to thrive.
两个不同的耐抗生素大肠菌（E. coli）菌株有一种保护关系，在这种关系中，每一个菌株使一种不同的抗生素失效，这让两个菌株都得以生存。

撰文 克里斯多夫·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）
翻译 陈旭琦
审校 马小崩

It's one of the underwater world's classic partnerships: clownfish and [Finding Nemo clip: "Anemonenene. Anemonem. Monemone."] Nemo hides out in the anemone, which helps keep predatory fish at bay.
这是海底世界里一种典型的合作关系：《海底总动员》中的小丑鱼和海葵。尼莫 藏在海葵里，这使掠食性鱼类 无法接近它。

"But at the same time there are other fish species that will kind of nibble on the sea anemones, and the clownfish will actually go out and scare them away." Jeff Gore, a biophysicist at MIT. "So in this case there's across-protection mutualism between these two species in which they help to avoid predation."
“但是同时会有其它蚕食海葵的鱼类，事实上小丑鱼会出来吓跑它们。”麻省理工学院的生物物理学家杰夫·戈尔解释道。“所以在这种情况下这两个物种间有一种相互保护的共生关系，来避免被捕食。”

Such cross-protection is usually seen between two animals. But Gore studies the same sort of mutualism in microbes. He and his team demonstrated the first experimental example of that cross-protective relationship in drug-resistant microbes, using two strains of antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria: one resistant to ampicillin, the other to chloramphenicol.
这样的交叉保护在两种动物之间很常见。但是戈尔研究了微生物间同样的共生关系。他和他的团队演示了第一个有关耐药细菌间交叉保护关系的实验实例，利用两个耐抗生素大肠菌菌株：一种对氨苄青霉素有抵抗力，另一种对氯霉素有抵抗力。

The researchers grew the bacteria together in a test tube, in the presence of both antibiotics. And rather than succumbing to the drugs, each bacterial strain deactivated one of the two antibiotics—thus protecting theother strain. That activity led to a stable coexistence over time. Which Gore says could in theory give the bugs an opportunity to swap resistance genes, through what’s called horizontal gene transfer—one bacterium donates genetic material to another. Any such transfer could make either or both strains individually resistant to both types of antibiotics. The findings are in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Eugene Anatoly Yurtsev, Oscillatory dynamics in a bacterial cross-protection mutualism]
研究者在同一个试管中培养细菌，试管中有两种抗生素。每个菌株使一种抗生素失效而不是屈服于它——这样保护了另一个菌株。那样的活动导致了长时间的稳定共存。戈尔所阐述的内容能够在理论上让这些细菌有机会通过水平转基因交换抗病基因——一个细菌把基因物质捐给另一个细菌。任何这样的转基因都能够让任意一个或者两个菌株各自对两种抗生素免疫。这些发现刊登在《美国国家科学院院刊》。

The same story might play out in our guts, too—but it's too early to translate it into medical guidance. "It's always important to remember that just because we see a particular dynamic in the laboratory doesn't mean we should immediately go and change our clinical dosing practices. But then those sorts of results are then used as a guide for the kinds of phenomena that clinicians may want to watch out for in their circumstances." ‘Cause the more we know about this bacterial buddy system, the better we may be at breaking it up if they team up against us.
同样的故事也会在我们的内脏中上演——但是将它加入医学指导还为时尚早。“总是要记得，仅因为我们在实验室里看到了特别的变化并不意味着我们应该立刻行动并改变我们的临床用药实践。但是接下来，这些类型的结果可来指导临床医生在各自的环境中遇到的、想要观察的现象。”因为当我们对细菌结伴的体系越了解，我们就能更好地终止它们针对我们的团队作战。