Bacteria living in the fur of sloths synthesize antibiotics that are potentially beneficial to humans. article about it published In Environmental Microbiology.
The sloth is the national symbol of Costa Rica and the country’s main tourist attraction. Animals of this suborder live on trees and feed on low-calorie leaves, and therefore lead an extremely passive lifestyle. Therefore, their fur is home to many algae, bacteria and other microorganisms.
Max Chavarria of the University of Costa Rica took fur samples from sloths in a shelter and analyzed them in the lab. It turned out that micrococcal bacteria that produce antibiotics live on this animal. This substance allows you to control the proliferation of potentially pathogenic bacteria or suppress other competitors such as fungi.
We isolated nine strains Brevibacteria And Rotiacan produce substances that inhibit the growth of common mammalian pathogens. Analysis of the biosynthetic gene clusters of these nine isolates indicates that the pathogen inhibitory activity may be mediated by the presence of siderophores, terpenes, beta-lactones, type III polyketide synthases. [и других веществ]. Our data show that micrococci“The sloth fur dweller may play a role in controlling microbial populations in this habitat and improve our understanding of this highly complex ecosystem,” the authors write.
Potentially, these bacteria could be the source of new antibiotics needed to fight resistant bacteria that have developed immunity to old ones. However, before this becomes a reality, it will be necessary to find out which substance the antimicrobial activity is associated with.
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