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Recent reports suggest that genes encoding resistance to major classes of antibiotics existed long before development and use of such drugs. For example, they have been found in 30,000-year-old permafrost sediments in northwestern Canada (JW Infect Dis Sep 14 2011). Now, researchers have searched for resistance genes in the microbiota of Lechuguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico — an ecosystem that has been isolated for >4 million years. This cave has been closed to human access without a permit since its discovery in 1986.
Samples, taken at three sites in deep, remote areas of the cave that have no connection to the surface and have probably never been visited by humans, yielded more than 500 unique bacterial strains. Nin…