New sorting trick finds bacteria that break down antibiotics
Liu Y, Wang KL, Hong YQ, Yuan Y, Wang H
Phytoremediation
If you compost or garden near a pond or wetland, the microbes in that mud are part of nature's cleanup crew for drug residues that wash off farms and yards, and this method helps scientists find the ones doing the real work.
Researchers wanted to find bacteria in lake sediment that could break down antibiotic pollution, but most methods only find bacteria that are easy to grow in a lab, missing rare, active ones. They used a glowing amino acid to light up bacteria that were actively feeding and growing, then sorted those glowing cells to find one, a previously unknown microbe, that could chemically alter the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. This gives scientists a faster way to hunt for nature's own pollution cleaners.
Key Findings
A new fluorescence-sorting method (HADA-FACS) isolated a previously overlooked bacterium, Pandoraea sp. AYGW-1, from lake sediment based on its metabolic activity under ciprofloxacin exposure.
Chemical analysis (UPLC-MS) showed the bacterium transforms ciprofloxacin through piperazine-ring oxidation and defluorination of the quinolone core, producing multiple breakdown byproducts.
Genomic and transcriptomic data showed coordinated stress, transport, and redox responses during antibiotic exposure, and the strain showed no hemolytic activity or unusual antibiotic resistance.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a way to fluorescently tag and sort out the rare, active bacteria in dirty water or sediment that are actually capable of breaking down antibiotics, discovering a new bacterial species that can partially dismantle the common antibiotic ciprofloxacin.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Activity-guided discovery of antibiotic-transforming bacteria from environmental microbiomes using D-amino acid-assisted fluorescence-activated cell sorting.
Efficient discovery of functionally active microorganisms from complex environmental microbiomes remains a major challenge in bioremediation research, as conventional enrichment and cultivation app...
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