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Key milestone towards the development of a new clinically useful antibiotic "Lantibiotics are antibiotic molecules produced by soil bacteria, and we are studying probably the most potent one known, microbisporicin, which is active against many different pathogens," said Professor Mervyn Bibb from the John Innes Centre, co-author on the paper to be published in PNAS. The producing bacterium, Microbispora corallina, is difficult to work with. It grows very slowly and no tools existed for its genetic manipulation. PhD student Lucy Foulston developed the tools herself. She then took advantage of new developments in genome sequencing to identify and then isolate the M. corallina gene cluster responsible for microbisporicin production. |
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Lifeline for antibiotic of last resort "Vancomycin resistance is thankfully still rare in MRSA, but if it became more widespread we could risk edging backwards to the pre-antibiotic era," says Professor Mark Buttner from the John Innes Centre, an institute of BBSRC. "We need to have a back-up ready in case resistance becomes more common." 'A vancomycin photoprobe identifies the histidine kinase VanSsc as a vancomycin receptor' was published online in Nature Chemical Biology, 11 April 2010, doi 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.350 |
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Spitting out detergents and chewing up pollutants The research is described in a paper published in the journal Molecular Microbiology (doi 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07261.x). The team anticipate that this technology will be widely applicable for industrial and biomedical use, for example to produce enzymes for biological washing powders or antibodies for therapeutic use. The work was funded by research grants from the BBSRC and technology development grants from the BBSRC and UEA. |
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GM Trial to reduce agrochemicals At the moment British farmers spray on average 15 times a year to protect against potato late blight. "We have isolated genes from two different wild potato species that confer blight resistance," said Professor Jonathan Jones from the Sainsbury Laboratory on Norwich Research Park. "Similar genes are found in all plants, and we are now testing whether these ones work in a field environment to protect a commercial potato variety, Desiree, against this destructive potato disease." |
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What is the JI's most significant contribution? One of the five research areas, which Prof. Mervyn Bibb is supporting and can be voted for, is Antibiotic Research. The most significant contribution being JIC pioneered the genome sequencing of Streptomyces. The winner will be announced in July as JIC brings its centenary celebrations to a close. |
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Forward Look Conference - 14th July 2010 Appearing will be:
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Biofilm production aids campylobacter survival Campylobacter cannot survive in the oxygen levels in the air, which forces the bacterium to adapt for survival in the food chain. One such a survival strategy is to form a biofilm, whereby the bacteria stick to a surface and encase themselves in a sticky 'slime' which protects them. "While biofilms are well established in the lifestyle and success of other pathogenic bacteria, their role in the lifestyle of Campylobacter was still unclear. We now have developed a model where the biofilm plays a central role in the transmission of Campylobacter via the food chain, and this may lead to new antimicrobial approaches, like disrupting the biofilm matrix or prevention of biofilm formation." commented Dr. Arnoud van Vliet. |
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Scientists make TB bug suicidal "With the advent of antibiotics, TB became treatable and at one point eradication was believed possible," says Dr Steph Bornemann from the John Innes Centre. "But TB has re-emerged as a major global health threat due to poverty, a deadly synergy with HIV and the emergence of drug resistant strains that are virtually untreatable with current therapies." Together the scientists have identified a four-step metabolic pathway involving GlgE that represents a new target for anti-tuberculosis drugs. |
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New defences deployed against plant diseases Plants have a defence system, based on pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). PRRs recognise molecules that are essential for pathogen survival. These molecules are less likely to mutate without harming the pathogen’s survival, making resistance to them more durable in the field. However, very few of these PRRs have been identified to date. Dr Cyril Zipfel and his group at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, UK, took a Brassica-specific PRR that recognises bacteria, and transformed it into the Solanaceae plants Nicotania benthaminia and tomato. These plants then showed drastically enhanced resistance against many different bacteria indicating that this approach provides a new biotechnological solution to engineering disease resistance in plants. |
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JIC scientist wins prestigious national award "Over the last decade all the major pharmaceutical companies have been bringing fewer antibiotics to the market, some have even departed the field altogether, a trend that is likely to be exacerbated by resistance issues. Procarta's novel solution not only tackles antibiotic resistance but also is a solution which should be far less susceptible to resistance" said Michael. |
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Clostridium difficile bacteriophage endolysin technology "Using bacterial endolysins has been of interest to IFR for many years in the food context," said Dr Arjan Narbad of the IFR, an institute of the BBSRC, which funded the study. "Now we have an endolysin that is active specifically against C. difficile we are looking forward to developing it into a potent weapon against this problem." |
