The Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves destroyed everything on his own, be it a machine or a mafia in the film series ‘Matrix’ and ‘John Wick’. Scientists have dedicated the name of Keanu Reeves to the discovery of a natural product that kills pathogenic fungi as in the movies.
The Leibniz Institute for Natural Products and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) in Germany announced on the 6th (local time) that “Dr.
Gray mold is a disease caused by a fungus with the scientific name Botrytis cinerea, which causes severe damage to more than 200 crops, including strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, and eggplants. German researchers revealed that bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas produce lipopeptides that selectively kill only the botrytis fungus.
Lipopeptides are molecules in which fat and protein fragments are combined. The research team named this lipid peptide ‘Keanumycin’. Dr. Sebastian Goetze, the first author of the thesis, said, “The lipopeptide discovered this time effectively kills fungi, just like Keanu Reeves’ fatal role in the film, and it got its name.”
Keanumycin was discovered in amoeba experiments. Amoeba, a protozoan, feeds on bacteria. However, a bacterium of the genus Pseudomonas killed the natural enemy, the amoeba. The research team discovered an amoeba-killing lipopeptide in this bacterium. Then, the gene corresponding to the blueprint for making lipopeptide was also found.
The researchers believe that keanumycin can also kill amoeba-like fungi. In a laboratory culture facility, keanumycin was biosynthesized and applied to laboratory hydrangeas affected by jet fungus, and actually killed the botrytis fungus. The research team said, “The culture medium in which the bacteria were grown also contains keanumycin, so it can itself become a natural antifungal agent.” Keanumycin is a natural product and breaks down naturally over time. This means it does not contaminate the soil like conventional pesticides.
Keanumycin was also effective against the Candida albicans fungus that infects humans, the researchers found. Candida is a fungus that infects the mouth, esophagus, genitals, and hands and toenails, and it harms people with weakened immune systems. The researchers found that keanumycin was harmless to human cells. There is a possibility that Keanu Reeves will appear in an athlete’s foot commercial.
The results of this study were published last month in the International Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
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Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c11107
