Bacterial compounds recently discovered by German scientists are so adept at avoiding predatory amoebas and killing their enemies that they have named “keanumycins,” according to legendary actor Keanu Reeves.
“Keanu Reeves plays many good roles in which he is very efficient in ‘killing’ his enemies,” said Dr. Pierre Stallforth, researcher and professor of paleobiotechnology at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology in Jena, Germany The New York Times.
“Keanumycins do the same thing with fungi.”
Keanumycins are peptides – short chains of amino acids that allow Pseudomonas bacteria to avoid the predatory amoeba. In addition to being “amoebicidal,” keanumycins can “drastically inhibit” infection of hydrangea, a flowering plant native to Japan, with Botrytis cinerea, one of the most destructive fungal pathogens, according to an article published earlier in the year Journal of the American Chemical Society.
B. dinner infects many types of plants and causes $10 to $100 billion in production losses worldwide each year, according to a 2020 article in Pathogens.
Keanumycins “make a hole in the surface of the pathogen and ‘bleed’ it to death,” said the study’s lead author, Sebastian Götze, a postdoctorate in paleobiotechnology at the Leibniz Institute in Germany. The Times.
“Like Keanu Reeves in his many roles as an expert killer, the newly discovered molecule can also efficiently, at low concentrations, kill a variety of human fungal pathogens, by creating a hole.”
The discovery of keanumycin is good news for plants. And it may be good news for humans: A newly discovered compound has been shown to potently inhibit growth candida albicans, which causes thrush, vaginal yeast infections, and invasive candidiasis in men.
The discovery could lead to the development of new antifungals for plants and humans – a development that is welcomed given the global threat posed by antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance, which includes antibiotic resistance, occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve over time, becoming less responsive to drugs, making infections more difficult, or untreatable.
In a Reddit thread held with Reeves last weekend, the actor said that scientists should name the newly discovered compound after John Wick, the character he played in the film series. Wick is a former hit-man who comes out of retirement to track down gangsters who kill dogs and steal cars.
“But that’s great,” Reeves wrote. “And it’s real for me. But thank you, scientist! Good luck, and thank you for helping us.
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