In article <jcherwon.41.00102D68 at dres.dnd.ca>, jcherwon at dres.dnd.ca (John
Cherwonogrodzky) wrote:
" My view, therefore, is that the role of antibiotics is primarily to shut
"down or inhibit biochemical pathways in the producer so that it can mature
"into a different form. It just so happens that this inhibition works on
One obvious test for this is to determine whether said antimicrobial agent
actually has the same effect on the organism which produces it. Many
Penicillium species of higher fungi, for example, produce copious amounts
of an antimicrobial agent, with little or no effect on their own growth
rate, which is easily measured in broth cultures using turbidity analysis.
However, your hypothesis is quite interesting. Certainly it is worth
consideration, and may indeed be of relevance in nature.
Charles
Charles Soto - hamlet at mail.utexas.edu
The Unrestrained Use of Excessive Force
