A team of scientists from the UK have obtained a new antifungal drug, solanomycin, from a pathogen that parasitizes on potatoes.
We are talking about a microorganism called Dickeya solani , which was first discovered 15 years ago. The so-called potato wet rot is caused by him, and everyone has seen it. The disease is harmful to agriculture, but scientists at the University of Cambridge (UK) have discovered a new broad-spectrum antibiotic. They introduced their research results in in mBio magazine .
Interestingly, early microbiologists had discovered the ability to secrete antibiotic in the bacteria D. solani, but the other one is oocidin A. It has high activity against many fungal infections in plants.
However, it turns out that this bacteria can secrete another antibiotic - somamycin. Scientists got it when they suppressed the gene that produces oocin A. Despite this inhibition, D. solani continued to maintain antifungal activity. Researchers wonder why this is happening and understand the bacteria's "backup" defense options. In addition to isolating the antibiotic itself, the authors of this work also identified a set of genes encoding the proteins that make up the compound.
Scientists also found that this microorganism consumes little of this antibiotic—for example, the solumycin gene is activated by an acidic environment. In the future, biologists hope to obtain a drug from it that can effectively protect plants and protect humans from pathogens in the future. In the lab, researchers have tested antibiotics against Candida albicans —it works. This type of fungus is naturally found in the body, but it can also cause dangerous infections.
