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The compounds did not kill the yeast, but biofilms are sources of human disease, so being able to inhibit them is important. Two different bacteria, Pseudomonas and Serratia, found in the ear of an opossum, produced compounds that inhibited the ability of Candida albicans yeast to form a biofilm.īiofilms - a network of physically closely associated bacteria usually attached to a surface - are one way disease-causing bacteria thrive and establish infections. They also yielded the most promising compound. Image by Steve Hillebrand/ US Fish and Wildlife Service This is an opossum (if you've never seen one before). Of the 3,659 types of bacteria isolated from the animals, 39% (1,425) were isolated from opossums. Opossum carcasses were the most frequently encountered roadkill, and they proved to be a rich source of bacteria, too. After that, they looked at the chemicals' ability to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria and yeast. Then they isolated bacteria and grew them in the laboratory, after which they purified chemicals produced by the bacteria and identified the genes that produced them. These adventurous researchers swabbed the ears, eyes, mouths, noses, GI tracts, and rectums of armadillos, deer, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, and skunks. Since wild animals are hard to capture, they sought and received permission from the State of Arkansas to get a scientific collectors' permit to analyze roadkill for their study. And because they wanted to find the most diverse types of bacteria, they thought of animals - but not just any lab animal - wild animals, with the potential to have encountered and carried many different types of bacteria. The scientists hypothesized that they could find some of those protective bacteria, isolate compounds from them, and some would prove to have antibiotic properties. Some strains of Escherichia coli, for example, produce toxins called colicins that kill other kinds of E. Part of this community includes normal bacteria that don't cause infection, but protect us from other disease-causing bacteria. Roadkill might seem like an unlikely reservoir of antibiotics, but there is solid reasoning behind their choice.ĭon't Miss: The Next Big Antibiotic Could Come from the Gut of an InsectĮveryone, humans and animals included, has a community of bacteria that lives in and on them. Cichewicz, principal investigator of the Natural Products Discovery Group and director of the Institute for Natural Products Applications and Research Technologies, and was published in the Journal of Natural Products. The research - which discovered a potential antibiotic found in the ear of a dead opossum - was led by OU's Robert H. A team of scientists from the University of Oklahoma is scooping up roadkill and searching for bacteria on them that might yield the world's next antibiotic. Our quest to find new antibiotics has taken a turn - a turn down the road, that is.