What is "teixobactin"

Teixobactin is a small molecule antibiotic that is active against gram-positive bacteria. It appears to belong to a new class of antibiotics, and harms bacteria by binding to lipid II and lipid III, important precursor molecules for forming the cell wall. Its discovery was announced in early 2015 in the journal Nature.

Teixobactin was discovered using a new method of culturing bacteria in soil, which allowed researchers to grow a previously unculturable bacteria now named Eleftheria terrae, which produces the antibiotic. In the Nature study, teixobactin was shown to kill Staphylococcus aureus or '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis ''without the bacteria developing a resistance to the antibiotic.