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Título del libro: Microbes In Process
Título del capítulo: Valuable products from microbes

Autores UNAM:
SERGIO SANCHEZ ESQUIVEL;
Autores externos:

Idioma:
Inglés
Año de publicación:
2014
Resumen:

Microorganisms are amazing producers of natural products. They are crucial to the health and well-being of people throughout the world. They are excellent producers of primary metabolites such as amino acids, vitamins and nucleotides, and make secondary metabolites which constitute half of the pharmaceuticals on the market today and provide agriculture and livestock with many essential products. This chapter centers on these beneficial secondary metabolites, the discovery of which goes back eighty five years when penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming. They include antibiotics, hypocholesterolemics, anticancer drugs, immunosuppressants, stimulators of gastrointestinal motility, enzyme inhibitors, products acting against insects, antiparasitics, ruminant growth stimulants, and herbicides. The recent decrease in the introduction of new antibiotics and other secondary metabolites is mainly due to the loss of interest in this area by the major pharmaceutical companies. However, small biotechnology companies and academic laboratories are pursuing this goal and some new technologies offer hope for a solution; these include metagenomics and genome mining. © 2014 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.


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