When chemicals attack
Nature Chemical Biology
2009년11월9일
A new way to watch chemical warfare between bacteria is presented in a study published online this week in Nature Chemical Biology. These findings have implications in microbial ecology and antibacterial drug development.
Many currently used antibiotics were originally identified as natural products made by bacteria, such as penicillin. In their natural environment, bacteria also use these compounds as antibiotics against other types of bacteria that are competing for resources.
Now Pieter Dorrestein and colleagues have created a method to directly monitor the production and release of these compounds using imaging mass spectrometry ― a technique that yields a quantitative picture of which and how many chemicals are made to fight off a bacterial competitor. The method should significantly simplify the ability to study bacterial interactions and may provide new pathways to identify and develop antibacterial compounds.
doi: 10.1038/nchembio.252
리서치 하이라이트
-
2월18일
Nature Energy Focus issue: How extreme weather events disrupt energy systemsNature Energy
-
1월28일
Materials science: Increased nuclear waste storage corrosion at material interfacesNature Materials
-
1월9일
Ecology: Reassessing impacts of ocean acidification on fish behaviourNature
-
12월20일
Marine biology: Acidified oceans may corrode shark scalesScientific Reports
-
12월19일
Anthropology: The final stand of Homo erectusNature
-
12월17일
Energy: Health and financial impacts of time-of-use energy rates raise equity concernsNature Energy
