Digging for Cures - antibiotics - Brief Article

When biologists Jo Handelsman and Robert Goodman station off in search of the nearest miracle antibiotic, they didn't direct the eye any farther than the dirt in their backyard at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "Soil is by the agency of far the richest source of biologically active indivisible particles on Earth," says Handelsman. Each cubic inch contains millions of bacteria, many of which release chemicals to help them struggle in the overpopulated environment. on the contrary more than 99 percent of those microbes have not been ordealed for useful compounds because it is in like manner difficult to check them single by one.

Handelsman and Goodman spe things along by the agency of taking a quick genetic snapshot of all the bacteria in the dirt. After collecting a soil sample, they be congealed and thaw it rapidly, thereby cracking unclose the microbes and releasing their genetic material. The gene are sorted and inserted into a standard laboratory entertainer bacterium, which is screened to diocese if its new gene successions manufacture any potentially useful physics "We've already found what direct the eyes like a structurally new antibiotic" says Handelsman. And she notes the genetic snapshot technique is not restricted to dirt: "We can do this for any microbe whose environment impedes it from being cultured in the lab." The team nearest plans to look at bacteria in the intestines of caterpillars.

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