Cornucopia of cures
scientists have accomplished a feat that could one day lead to better treatments for cancer. They have sequenced the genome of the bacterium, Streptomyces coelicolor. This feat is expected to aid the development of several new antibiotics as the bacterium S coelicolor and its relatives are sources of nearly two-thirds of all the antibiotics manufactured across the world. They also generate compounds that are used to make cancer drugs.
The bacterium's genome, consisting of 8.50 million dna letters, was pieced together and sequenced by researchers from Norwich-based John Innes Centre and Cambridge-based Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
The life process of this bacterium is fascinating. It dwells in soil and is responsible for its