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Antibiotics
Antibiotics are low molecular weight secondary metabolites produced by certain strains of bacteria (mainly Bacillus species) and fungi (above all Streptomycetes). At low concentrations, they are either bactericidal by killing other microorganisms or bacteriostatic by reversibly inhibiting growth. The concept of antibiotics includes today also chemically or biochemically synthesized derivatives as well as substances from plants and animals with antibiotic activity. Antibiotics can be classified according to their mechanism of action.The major targets in the cell are:
Besides, antibiotics can interact quite specifically in various metabolic
pathways.
In the research area, antibiotics are used in cell culture to
prevent the growth of contaminating bacteria, fungi and mycoplasma. In
Molecular Biology, some antibiotics can be used for the selection of resistant
cell clones. Due to their specific mechanism of action, antibiotics are also
valuable tools in the elucidation of cellular functions.
In the following
section, our antibiotics program is listed according to their mechanism of
action.
