Antibiotics have been found in the lakes of Tibet

Scientists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and their Russian and Chinese colleagues have found that bacteria that produce antibiotics live in the soils and salt lakes of the Tibetan Plateau. This is reported on the Skoltech website.

"Although all the substances found are already known to science, their discovery gives hope that sooner or later the analysis of isolated microbial communities in Tibet or other exotic regions will provide humanity with new antibiotics. The effectiveness of available drugs decreases due to their uncontrolled intake, which leads to the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria," the institute said in a statement.

The results of the study are published in the journals Frontiers in Microbiology and Microorganisms.

Through a whole range of different studies, scientists have found out that water from salt lakes contains hadamycins and kidamycins, and samples of Tibetan soil contain rifamycins.

"Compounds from these groups are already known as antibiotics, but still their presence in such a remote and mountainous region is in a sense a surprise. Unknown antibiotics may also be hiding in such natural environments. Maybe we'll be lucky to find them next time," Dmitry Lukyanov, senior lecturer at the Skoltech Center for Molecular and Cellular Biology, said in the message.