Using an ultrahigh-throughput, microfluidic droplet-based platform to screen the oral microbiome of Siberian brown bears (Ursus arctos collaris), researchers identified strains of Bacillus pumilus producing the antibiotic amicoumacin A, which kills the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus; the droplet-based approach also helped uncover a mechanism by which Bacillus resists the antibiotic, suggesting that the platform could be used to discover novel antibiotics and screen for antibiotic resistance, according to a study.
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Article #18-11250: "Ultrahigh-throughput functional profiling of microbiota communities" by Stanislav S. Terekhov et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Alexander Gabibov, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, RUSSIA; e-mail: <gabibov@ibch.ru>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences