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Nature's Antibiotic Factory

Posted by michael on from the no-paid-overtime dept.

Vancouverite writes "The genome of Streptomyces coelicolor is unveiled and published in Nature. It and its relatives produce two-thirds of the natural antibiotics in use, including tetracycline and erythromycin, plus other pharmaceuticals such as anticancer agents and immunosuppresssants."

1 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Re:messing around with drug resistant bugs by SuperAbe · · Score: 2, Informative

    Streptomycetes are a part of a larger 'family' of bacteria - the Actinomycetes - and a group that is responsible for about 60% of the ~11,000 extant antibiotics. Erythromycin, neomycin, streptomycin, tetracycline - all are isolated from members of the Streptomyces genus.

    In addition, while organisms are resistant to the deleterious effects of the chemicals they produce, the remain sensitive to other antibiotcs (i.e. bacteria that produce erythromycin are still tetracycline sensitive).

    Check out the following page for more background info on S. coelicolor.