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Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg

The discovery of new antibiotics is mandatory with regard to the increasing number of resistant pathogens. One approach is the search for new antibiotic producers in nature. Among actinomycetes, Bacillus species, and fungi, myxobacteria have been a rich source for bioactive secondary metabolites for...

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Autor principal: Mohr, Kathrin I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30103481
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms6030084
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author Mohr, Kathrin I.
author_facet Mohr, Kathrin I.
author_sort Mohr, Kathrin I.
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description The discovery of new antibiotics is mandatory with regard to the increasing number of resistant pathogens. One approach is the search for new antibiotic producers in nature. Among actinomycetes, Bacillus species, and fungi, myxobacteria have been a rich source for bioactive secondary metabolites for decades. To date, about 600 substances could be described, many of them with antibacterial, antifungal, or cytostatic activity. But, recent cultivation-independent studies on marine, terrestrial, or uncommon habitats unequivocally demonstrate that the number of uncultured myxobacteria is much higher than would be expected from the number of cultivated strains. Although several highly promising myxobacterial taxa have been identified recently, this so-called Great Plate Count Anomaly must be overcome to get broader access to new secondary metabolite producers. In the last years it turned out that especially new species, genera, and families of myxobacteria are promising sources for new bioactive metabolites. Therefore, the cultivation of the hitherto uncultivable ones is our biggest challenge.
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spelling pubmed-61642252018-10-10 Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg Mohr, Kathrin I. Microorganisms Review The discovery of new antibiotics is mandatory with regard to the increasing number of resistant pathogens. One approach is the search for new antibiotic producers in nature. Among actinomycetes, Bacillus species, and fungi, myxobacteria have been a rich source for bioactive secondary metabolites for decades. To date, about 600 substances could be described, many of them with antibacterial, antifungal, or cytostatic activity. But, recent cultivation-independent studies on marine, terrestrial, or uncommon habitats unequivocally demonstrate that the number of uncultured myxobacteria is much higher than would be expected from the number of cultivated strains. Although several highly promising myxobacterial taxa have been identified recently, this so-called Great Plate Count Anomaly must be overcome to get broader access to new secondary metabolite producers. In the last years it turned out that especially new species, genera, and families of myxobacteria are promising sources for new bioactive metabolites. Therefore, the cultivation of the hitherto uncultivable ones is our biggest challenge. MDPI 2018-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6164225/ /pubmed/30103481 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms6030084 Text en © 2018 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Mohr, Kathrin I.
Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg
title Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg
title_full Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg
title_fullStr Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg
title_full_unstemmed Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg
title_short Diversity of Myxobacteria—We Only See the Tip of the Iceberg
title_sort diversity of myxobacteria—we only see the tip of the iceberg
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30103481
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms6030084
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