Versatile antibiotic found with self-immunity gene on plasmid in staph strain
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - 12:02
in Health & Medicine
A robust, broad spectrum antibiotic, and a gene that confers immunity to that antibiotic are both found in the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis Strain 115. The antibiotic, a member of the thiopeptide family of antibiotics, is not in widespread use, partly due to its complex structure, but the investigators now report that the mechanism of synthesis is surprisingly simple.