NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – By scouring the content of soil microbiomes, researchers have uncovered a new class of antibiotic.

Chemicals produced by microorganisms have been a key source of antibiotics. Calcium-dependent antibiotics have been particularly helpful in treating multi-drug resistant infections, leading a Rockefeller University-led team of researchers to search for gene clusters linked to that function within a series of environmental metagenome samples.