A Potent New Antibiotic (and a New Antibiotic Discovery Method)

Many modern antibiotics were discovered by screening known microorganisms for production of molecules with antibiotic properties. However, the number of new antibiotics has been diminishing, and the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been growing. To address this dearth of new antibiotic discoveries, researchers turned to previous nucleic acid studies, which indicated that only a tiny fraction of soil microorganisms have been isolated by conventional culture methods.

An international team diluted soil samples until they isolated individual bacterial cells. Nutrients and growth factors for soil bacteria stimulated multiplication of the isolated bacterial cells to form colonies of previously unknown species. Using this method, the tea…