Overview
- Researchers isolated Psychrobacter SC65A.3 from the Scărișoara Ice Cave in Romania and dated it to roughly 5,000 years.
- Lab tests showed resistance to 10 of 28 antibiotics across 10 classes that are widely used in clinical care.
- The strain is the first Psychrobacter reported with resistance to trimethoprim, clindamycin and metronidazole.
- Genome sequencing found more than 100 resistance-related genes, nearly 600 genes of unknown function and 11 candidates with antimicrobial activity.
- The team drilled a sterile 25‑meter ice core spanning 13,000 years and cautioned that melting or mishandling could spread resistance genes into modern microbes.