Antibiotic-Producing Beneficial Bacteria in the Gut of the Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.

ABSTRACT: The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant human pathogens is a growing public concern and there is intense pressure to identify new antibacterial compounds that can be developed into antibiotics with novel mode of action. Evolutionary theory predicts that insects that have evolved to occupy sophisticated ecological niches by feeding and reproducing on carcasses will depend on their gut microbiome to prevent colonization by invading pathogens taken up with the diet. This inspired our hypothesis that the complex interactions between the core microbiome and the more flexible microbial communities dependent on the environment may promote the outsourcing of antibiotic synthesis to beneficial microbes. We tested this hypothesis by cultivating and characterizing bacteria isolated from the

SUBMITTER: Heise P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6563848 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature