Microbial Scout Hypothesis and Microbial Discovery

Microbial scout hypothesis, stochastic exit from dormancy, and the nature of slow growers.

We recently proposed a scout model of the microbial life cycle (S. S. Epstein, Nature 457:1083, 2009), the central element of which is the hypothesis that dormant microbial cells wake up into active (so-called scout) cells stochastically, independently of environmental cues. Here, we check the principal prediction of this hypothesis: under growth-permissive conditions, dormant cells initiate gr...

NextGen microbial natural products discovery

Small-molecule secondary metabolites isolated from microorganisms and plants provide the chemical scaffolds of a large fraction of today’s pharmaceuticals. Evolutionary forces shaped the molecular complexity of these natural products that contribute to the exquisite binding of these compounds to biological targets. Starting with the discovery of penicillin by Fleming, we have seen a rapid incre...

Microbial Biodiversity: a New Voyage of Discovery

Phenotypic taxonomy and metabolite profiling in microbial drug discovery.

Microorganisms and in particular actinomycetes and microfungi are known to produce a vast number of bioactive secondary metabolites. For industrially important fungal genera such as Penicillium and Aspergillus the production of these compounds has been demonstrated to be very consistent at the species level. This means that direct metabolite profiling techniques such as direct injection mass sp...

Microbial Weed Control and Microbial Herbicides

Microbial weed control represents an innovative means to manage troublesome weeds and utilize the naturally occurring biological herbicides produced by soil microorganisms. These compounds kill or hinder the growth of weeds so that beneficial plant species can gain a competitive advantage. The vast diversity of microorganisms in our environment is largely untapped, and the potential discovery a...