Umbrella toxins discovered in Streptomyces present new class of antimicrobials

Results of a study revealing a new antimicrobial particle produced by Streptomyces spp. led by UW Microbiology’s Dr. Qinqin Zhao and mim_c Director Joseph Mougous were published in the journal Nature Wednesday, April 17th (commentary). In addition to numerous scientists in the Mougous group within the UW Department of Microbiology, the authors leveraged expertise from UW’s Departments of Physics and Biochemistry, the Institute for Protein Design, St. Louis University, and the University of California Berkeley. Filamentous soil bacteria of the genus Streptomyces have been a boon for antibiotic discovery for nearly a century, but the umbrella-shaped polymorphic toxins described in this new study offer a dramatic leap in target specificity that could aide clinical applications where other antibiotics have failed.