Understanding antibiotic resistance
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3.1 Treating infections with Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

In the next activity you will look at some recent research that uses Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus to treat infections in an experimental model.

Activity 5 Treating infections with Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

Allow about 15 minutes

Listen to the following audio clip from the BBC’s Inside Science programme. Liz Sockett from the University of Nottingham talks about research using Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus to treat Shigella infections in zebrafish. You may also like to watch Video 2 which shows a Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus bacterium (labelled in red) preying on a Shigella bacterium (labelled in green) inside a zebrafish larva.

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Audio 2 Interview with Liz Sockett about research with Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.
Transcript (opens in new window)
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Video 2 Predation of Shigella by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus inside a zebrafish larva (Willis et al., 2016).

Using the information in the interview, complete the following statements about the experiment described by Professor Sockett. The missing words are given below to help you.

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

Shigella

Zebrafish

(A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)

Answer

a) Zebrafish were used as the host for the infection.

(b) Shigella infections are normally lethal for zebrafish.

(c) Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus preys on Shigella, killing them and stopping the infection.

(d) As well as killing the Shigella bacteria directly, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus stimulate the host immune system to help clear the infection.

Now listen to another clip from the same interview in which Professor Sockett discusses how Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus could be used as a treatment and the advantages that this treatment might have.

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Audio 3 Interview with Liz Sockett about Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.
Transcript (opens in new window)

Note down in the table below any differences between a potential Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus treatment and antibiotics that Professor Sockett mentions in the audio clip.

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus Antibiotics
Type of treatment
Likelihood of resistance arising
Tackles antibiotic-resistant bacteria

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OpenLearn - Understanding antibiotic resistance
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