Scientists Sequence Genome of Mold That Produced First Penicillin
FRIDAY, Sept. 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) — The genome of the original mold that produced the first penicillin has been sequenced by scientists.
The world’s first antibiotic was accidentally discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming when mold contaminated one of his petri dishes, CNN reported.
“Remarkably, after all this time spent in the freezer, (the mold) grows back fairly readily. It is fairly easy, you just break it out of that tube and put it on a petri dish plate and away it goes,” said Tim Barraclough, a professor at the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and the Department of Zoology at Oxford University.
This is the first time the genome of the mold has been sequenced, and the researchers said what they’ve learned could help efforts to combat antibiotic resistance, CNN reported.
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