Airborne tuberculosis bacteria may mutate as they dry, revealing a target to curb drug resistance

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have found that tuberculosis bacteria may mutate as they dry out into infectious airborne particles. Per Phys.org, these specific mechanisms allow the bacteria to survive the drying process while generating mutations linked to antibiotic resistance. This discovery suggests that the transmission of the pathogen between people may be an active period of evolution rather than just passive movement.

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