BIOS 2210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Selman Waksman, Dactinomycin, Neomycin
28 Sep 2018
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How do environmental microbes help humans: chemotherapy. Any use of chemicals or drugs to treat disease. To fight cancer or as antimicrobial drugs. 350 and 550 ad have shown residue of the antimicrobial agent tetracycline in high enough quantities to suggest the purposeful fermentation of tetracycline-producing streptomyces during the beer- making process beer was more sludge-like medicine: history. Ehrlich in the 1900s searching for antimicrobial chemicals - found a way to treat syphilis. Fleming - found that penicillin (natural antibiotic) kills bacteria. 1939 sulfa drugs - synthetic drugs (natural, produced in lab setting) Hodgkin - semisynthetic penicillin: it"s in the soil *** 1940s - selman waksman soil microbiologist at rutgers university. Fungi and the actinobacteria, including soil bacteria in the genus streptomyces and actinomycetes. Decomposers: convert dead organic matter to release co2 for reuse by plants. Photosynthetic organisms: convert co2 into carbohydrates, called carbon fixation: photosynthesis.
