Microbes at War

A video and pdf showing how microbes have evolved a range of defence mechanisms that help to protect them against viral infections and how viruses can adapt.

Microbes have been at war with each other, competing to access these nutrients for millions of years. Many have evolved ways to make chemicals that inhibit the growth or kill other microbes. In response to this chemical attack, microbes have evolved ways to resist the damaging effects of antimicrobials.

This short video clip has been made available by the University of Reading and comes from our free online course Small and Mighty: An introduction to microbiology, available from FutureLearn.

Visit futurelearn .com site and search 'Small and Mighty: An introduction to microbiology’ for the full course (free without certificates option available)

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