The key to overcoming drug resistance in superbugs might be found in soil bacteria, according to a new study. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are attempting to figure out why soil bacteria are reluctant to share their several drug-resistant genes.

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, titled Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013, at least 2 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the U.S., and approximately 23,000 people die each year as a result of such infections.

The researchers found that bacteria that live naturally in the soil have a large collection of genes to help fight antibiotics, but they are not likely to share the genes. These findings indicate that many genes from soil bacteria are not poised to contribute to antibiotic resistance in infectious bacteria.

The results from the study appeared May 21 in the journal Nature.

Gautam Dantas, senior study author, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology, noted that the researchers are hopeful that the information they are learning from soil bacteria can help them identify ways to reduce gene sharing in infectious bacteria, which would slow down the spread of drug-resistant superbugs.

Dantas said in a statement, “Soil bacteria have strategies for fighting antibiotics that we’re only just starting to learn about.” He continued, “We need to make sure the genes that make these strategies possible aren’t shared with infectious bacteria, because they could make the problem of drug-resistant infections much worse.”