June 17, 2013 ? An antibiotic has been found to stimulate its own production. The findings, to be published in PNAS, could make it easier to scale up antibiotic production for commercialisation.
Scientists Dr Emma Sherwood and Professor Mervyn Bibb from the John Innes Centre were able to use their discovery of how the antibiotic is naturally produced to markedly increase the level of production.
"We have shown for the first time that an antibiotic with clinical potential can act as signalling molecule to trigger its own synthesis," said Professor Bibb.
The antibiotic called planosporicin is produced by a soil bacterium called Planomonospora alba. When nutrients become limited, a small amount of the antibiotic is produced. The antibiotic is then able to trigger a mechanism which coordinates its own production throughout the bacterial population resulting in high levels.
"A frequent stumbling block in developing a natural product for commercialisation is being able to provide enough material for clinical trials," said Professor Bibb.
"Our work shows with the right understanding it is possible to increase productivity very dramatically in a targeted and knowledge-based manner."
With knowledge of this signalling mechanism in hand, the scientists were able to increase production by overexpressing two positively acting regulatory genes and deleting one that acts negatively. Planosporicin is similar to the antibiotic NAI-107 that is about to enter clinical trials for Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections. The knowledge gained from this study is being used to increase NAI-107 production.
Commercial manufacturers of antibiotics may be able to use the results to reduce production times and therefore reduce costs. Bacteria often have to be grown for days and sometimes weeks before they start to make effective amounts of an antibiotic. Sherwood and Bibb were able to trigger production essentially from the beginning of growth.
The work was funded through JIC's core strategic grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/_AqpXED2Qnw/130617160900.htm
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Updated. As the PRISM scandal shows no signs of dying down in the public consciousness, Facebook has just released the fullest account to date of the requests it has received from United States law enforcement and governmental authorities for the data surrounding its users. To borrow a phrase from local news sizzle reels, the numbers may surprise you. In a report issued today on Facebook’s company blog, general counsel Ted Ullyot wrote: “For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) ? was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut ? from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts. With more than 1.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, this means that a tiny fraction of one percent of our user accounts were the subject of any kind of U.S. state, local, or federal U.S. government request (including criminal and national security-related requests) in the past six months. We hope this helps put into perspective the numbers involved, and lays to rest some of the hyperbolic and false assertions in some recent press accounts about the frequency and scope of the data requests that we receive.” More information can be found here, and we’re updating the story as it develops. UPDATE: Microsoft has followed suit, releasing its own figures on official U.S. data requests including FISA orders in its own blog post shortly following Facebook’s disclosures, writing: “For the six months ended December 31, 2012, Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts from U.S. governmental entities (including local, state and federal).” But at first blush, those numbers may not seem as scary as the initial reports on governmental surveillance of web activity would imply. Though the government under FISA does have the right to request as much information as it would like in the name of national security, it seems that those requests