Lyceum Northwestern University

Institute of Graduate Studies

Tapuac District, Dagupan City

SCIENCE RESEARCH
APPLICABLE FOR
VIRTUAL TEACHING

(“Driving Bacteria To
Produce Potential
Antibiotic, Anti-parasitic
Compounds”)
A Requirement For
Special Topics for Science Teachers

Submitted to: Submitted by:

DR. ESMIE T. AGPALO JERIC R. RAZOTE
TOPIC: Fungi, Protists and Bacteria (Grade 7, 2nd Quarter)

MELCS: Identify beneficial and harmful microorganisms (S7LT-IIf-6)

RELATED SCIENCE RESEARCH:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200625122735.htm

Driving bacteria to produce potential

antibiotic, antiparasitic compounds
Date:
June 25, 2020
Source:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Summary:
Researchers have developed a method to spur the
production of new antibiotic or antiparasitic compounds
hiding in the genomes of actinobacteria, which are the
source of the drugs actinomycin and streptomycin and are
known to harbor other untapped chemical riches.

Bacteria illustration (stock image).

Credit: © Paulista / stock.adobe.com
Researchers have developed a method to spur the
production of new antibiotic or antiparasitic
compounds hiding in the genomes of
actinobacteria, which are the source of drugs such
as actinomycin and streptomycin and are known to
harbor other untapped chemical riches. The
scientists report their findings in the journal eLife.

The researchers wanted to overcome a decades-old problem that

confronts those hoping to study and make use of the countless
antibiotic, antifungal and antiparasitic compounds that bacteria
can produce, said Satish Nair, a University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign professor of biochemistry who led the research.
"In laboratory conditions, bacteria don't make the number of
molecules they have the capability of making," he said. "And
that's because many are regulated by small-molecule hormones
that aren't produced unless the bacteria are under threat."
Nair and his colleagues wanted to determine how such hormones
influence the production of antibiotics in actinobacteria. By
exposing their bacteria to the right hormone or combination of
hormones, the researchers hope to spur the microbes to produce
new compounds that are medically useful.
The team focused on avenolide, a hormone that is more
chemically stable than one used in earlier studies of bacterial
hormones. Avenolide regulates the production of an antiparasitic
compound known as avermectin in a soil microbe. A chemically
modified version of this compound, ivermectin, is used as a
treatment for river blindness, a disease transmitted by flies that
blinded millions of people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, before
the drug was developed.
For the new study, chemistry graduate student Iti Kapoor
developed a more streamlined process for synthesizing avenolide
in the lab than was previously available. This allowed the team to
study the hormone's interactions with its receptor both inside and
outside bacterial cells.
"Using a method called X-ray crystallography, Iti and biochemistry
graduate student Philip Olivares were able to determine how the
hormone binds to its receptor and how the receptor binds to the
DNA in the absence of hormones," Nair said. "Typically, these
receptors sit on the genome and they basically act as brakes."
The researchers discovered that when the hormone binds to it,
the receptor loses its ability to cling to DNA. This turns off the
brakes, allowing the organism to churn out defensive compounds
like antibiotics.
Knowing which regions of the receptor are involved in binding to
the hormone and to the DNA enabled the team to scan the
genomes of dozens of actinobacteria to find sequences that had
the right traits to bind to their receptor or to similar receptors. This
process, called genome mining, allowed the team to identify 90
actinobacteria that appear to be regulated by avenolide or other
hormones in the same class.
"Our long-term project is to take those 90 bacteria, grow them up
in the laboratory, add chemically synthesized hormones to them
and see what new molecules are being produced," Nair said. "The
beauty of our approach is that we can now get the bacteria to
produce large quantities of molecules that normally we would not
be able to make in the lab."
Some of these new compounds are likely to have medical
relevance, he said.
 REFERENCES:

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau. Original written

by Diana Yates. 

Journal Reference:

1. Iti Kapoor, Philip Olivares, Satish K Nair. Biochemical basis for the regulation of

biosynthesis of antiparasitics by bacterial hormones. eLife, 2020; 9 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.57824

APA Citation:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau. (2020, June 25). Driving bacteria to

produce potential antibiotic, antiparasitic compounds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 10, 2020 from

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200625122735.htm