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Antibiotics: Relax UK import rule on fungi

Nature volume 496, page 169 (2013)Cite this article

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With the UK Chief Medical Officer last month highlighting the “catastrophic threat” of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (see Nature 495, 141; 2013), we suggest that the United Kingdom re-evaluates its misplaced over-regulation of importing fungi for research. This is obstructing a potentially effective route towards alleviating the antibiotics crisis.

Some of the most successful antimicrobials, among other pharmaceuticals, are derived from fungi — including penicillins, cephalosporins, cyclosporins, griseofulvins and pneumocandin. Given that only 2–12% of all estimated fungal species have been described and less than half of those in the GenBank database have been named, unknown fungi may have the greatest potential for yielding new pharmaceuticals.

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  1. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

    David L. Hawksworth

  2. The Natural History Museum, London, UK

    David L. Hawksworth

  3. Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK

    Bryn T. M. Dentinger

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  1. David L. Hawksworth
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  2. Bryn T. M. Dentinger
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Correspondence to David L. Hawksworth.

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Hawksworth, D., Dentinger, B. Antibiotics: Relax UK import rule on fungi. Nature 496, 169 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/496169b

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