Kelly and Adams are first going to try to assemble the needed metabolic pathways in less extreme bugs like e. coli bacteria.

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Tanabe tells us the soil is first lab tested, and then heated to extreme temperatures, to kill off any bacteria.

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Further study will involve the team seeking to determine the potential diversity of extreme psychrophilic ("cold-loving") bacteria living inland in Antarctica, that in turn will establish a map of the distribution of bacteria across the continent.

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Infectious disease experts consider them to be an antibiotic of last resort, to be prescribed only when first-line antibiotics such as penicillin fail to work, or in cases of extreme, life-threatening infection, or for certain bacteria known to respond best to quinolones.

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Preventing the bacteria's spread has required doctors to take extreme care, putting all patients who are returning from the theater of war into isolation.

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