Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Microbiome

Commensally sourced antibiotics

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 12, page 726 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

To identify novel microbiota-derived products, Donia et al. analysed the reference genomes of 2,430 human-associated bacteria for the presence of BGCs involved in the synthesis of a range of small molecules. By examining metagenomic samples from the Human Microbiome Project, they found that 3,118 of the 14,000 identified candidate BGCs were expressed in the microbiota of healthy individuals. The abundance of BGCs varied with anatomical location; more BGCs were present in the gut and the oral cavity than in the skin, airways and urogenital tract. Notably, although some BGCs were restricted in their distribution, BGCs that encode the thiopeptide class of antibiotics were present at all anatomical sites.

lactocillin was active against several pathogens

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Donia, M. S. et al. A systematic analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters in the human microbiome reveals a common family of antibiotics. Cell 158, 1402–1414 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Cláudio Nunes-Alves
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nunes-Alves, C. Commensally sourced antibiotics. Nat Rev Microbiol 12, 726 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3363

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3363

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing