Technion team uncovers a hidden trick bacteria use to outrun antibiotics

Researchers at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have identified a previously unrecognised way in which bacteria quickly become resistant to antibiotics. The work by Dr Idan Yelin and Professor Roy Kishony of the Technion's Faculty of Biology was published in Nature Microbiology in early July 2026 and reported by Ynetnews on 27 July.

Bacteria have long been known to survive drugs by gene amplification: making extra copies of a gene that helps them, such as one that pumps an antibiotic out of the cell. The Technion team built a computational tool, AmpliFinder, and used it to scan more than 10,000 samples of bacteria that had been evolved in the laboratory under antibiotic pressure. They found a form of amplification they call non-canonical, in which a single stretch of DNA links distant parts of the genome. Because it does not look like the familiar pattern, it is easy to miss, yet it lets bacteria rapidly churn out dozens of copies of selected genes.

The researchers studied Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii, both of which can cause serious infections in people and whose resistant strains are on the World Health Organization's list of priority superbugs. In experiments with the antibiotic chloramphenicol, multiplying a DNA segment carrying a gene called mdfA let the bacteria cope with ever-higher doses. The same mechanism also produced resistance to ampicillin and trimethoprim, two widely prescribed drugs. When the antibiotic was removed, the bacteria shed the extra copies and became sensitive again, a kind of temporary or hidden resistance that standard tests could overlook.

Yelin stressed that the discovery does not change treatment today and that the work was done on laboratory strains. Follow-up studies will need to measure how common the mechanism is in bacteria from hospitals and patients. The team suggests that drugs blocking it could one day be given alongside antibiotics to stop resistance from developing so quickly. Kishony's laboratory is known for its studies of how bacteria evolve resistance in real time.