Scientific breakthrough could explain how superbugs rapidly evolve

A scientific breakthrough has revealed a new way that bacteria evolves, thought to be at least 1,000 times more efficient than any currently known mechanism. The insights will help scientists to better understand how superbugs can rapidly evolve and become increasingly antibiotic resistant. The research, led by the University of Glasgow and the National University of Singapore and , has found a previously unknown method of genetic transduction - the process through which bacteria begins to evolve into potentially deadly superbugs. The new process has been named Lateral Transduction, and now joins the two known methods of transduction: Generalised and Specialised Transduction, both discovered by the American scientist Joshua Lederberg, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with bacteria. Working with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, scientists were able to demonstrate that this new naturally occurring method of transduction was at least one thousand times more efficient than generalised transduction, the best currently known method. Due to the efficiency of lateral transduction, scientists speculate it is likely to be the most impactful type of transduction to occur in bacteria during its evolutionary process.‌ Professor José R Penadés, from the University of Glasgow, said: "This is an incredibly exciting and significant discovery. We have been able to show a new way that bacteria evolve.