Researchers at McMaster University in Canada extracted and authenticated ancient DNA from Beringian permafrost sediment, dated to roughly 30,000 years old, long before any antibiotic had been discovered or used by humans.
Within that ancient DNA, the team identified a highly diverse set of genes encoding resistance to beta-lactam, tetracycline and glycopeptide antibiotics, entire classes still prescribed today. Structural and functional testing of one gene, VanA, which confers vancomycin resistance, showed it closely resembled the versions of VanA found in drug-resistant bacteria now circulating in hospitals.
The permafrost samples underwent rigorous authentication to rule out modern contamination, a standard concern in ancient DNA research, before the resistance genes were accepted as genuinely tens of thousands of years old. The finding reframes antibiotic resistance as an ancient, naturally occurring trait that long predates clinical antibiotic use, rather than something medicine itself created from nothing.
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Resistance existed before anyone needed it to.
Source
- D'Costa, V. M., King, C. E., Kalan, L., Morar, M., Sung, W. W. L., Schwarz, C., Froese, D., Zazula, G., Calmels, F., Debruyne, R., Golding, G. B., Poinar, H. N., & Wright, G. D. (2011). Antibiotic resistance is ancient. Nature, 477(7365), 457–61. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10388