2 ms·

The irony though is that the rainforest is actually one of the least biodiverse parts of the world for that particular purpose. Sure, the rainforest is biodive

The irony though is that the rainforest is actually one of the least biodiverse parts of the world for that particular purpose. Sure, the rainforest is biodiverse for megafauna and, to a lesser degree, megaflora, but if you really want to mine biodiversity for biochemicals, you ought to care about bacteria and fungi, which reproduce and gene-share like crazy. The best places for that are places which drive resource competition and don't have jerk megaflora fumigating the area with simple terpenes -- the desert. However, the desert is less photographically charismatic (in terms of showing 'life') and probably also researchers would rather ask for grants to visit the rainforest or go scuba diving, so that biases the public's perception of where biodiversity exists. https://www.pnas.org/content/103/3/626.short https://www.pnas.org/content/103/3/626.short

Retric 7y ago
In terms of medicine, the further an organism is from humans the less likely it's compounds are directly useful. Bacteria have a huge variety of compounds, but are so alien they have been a poor source of medical compounds. Plants on the other hand while still very separated from us need to interact with animals on a regular basis which closes the gap. CRISPER is arguably the exception that proves the rule here. Extremely useful, but no need to preserve exotic locations. PS: Not that I necessarily agree with this, but I have seen this line of reasoning put forth.
- dnautics 7y ago
  What? Every single compound that ends in -mycin/-micin comes from bacteria. Erythromycin Azithromycin Tobramycin Kanamycin Clindamycin Clarithromycin Gentamicin Streptomycin Vancomycin Lincomycin Telithromycin Fosfomycin Doxorubicin Etc...
  - Retric 7y ago
    That’s from something like 1 trillion bacteria species vs 300k plant species. Considering we have 120+ important medical compounds from plants we would need ~400,000 from bacteria for each species to have equal weight. Further, fighting bacteria is a connection between us and bacteria so deriving an antibiotic is an obvious connection. Looking for say an anti cholesterol drug on the other hand and your stuck with random interactions.
    - dnautics 7y ago
      normalizing by number of species (which is a vague concept anyways, most species nomenclature in bacteria is driven by the need to publish - salmonella and e coli are basically the same) is completely irrelevant concept for this discussion. When you're looking for 'random interactions' most chemists reach for combichem anyways. Look at all of the drugs that treat CML - (gleevec eg) none of them come from any biotic source.

Retric 7y ago

In terms of medicine, the further an organism is from humans the less likely it's compounds are directly useful. Bacteria have a huge variety of compounds, but are so alien they have been a poor source of medical compounds. Plants on the other hand while still very separated from us need to interact with animals on a regular basis which closes the gap. CRISPER is arguably the exception that proves the rule here. Extremely useful, but no need to preserve exotic locations. PS: Not that I necessarily agree with this, but I have seen this line of reasoning put forth.

dnautics 7y ago
What? Every single compound that ends in -mycin/-micin comes from bacteria. Erythromycin Azithromycin Tobramycin Kanamycin Clindamycin Clarithromycin Gentamicin Streptomycin Vancomycin Lincomycin Telithromycin Fosfomycin Doxorubicin Etc...
- Retric 7y ago
  That’s from something like 1 trillion bacteria species vs 300k plant species. Considering we have 120+ important medical compounds from plants we would need ~400,000 from bacteria for each species to have equal weight. Further, fighting bacteria is a connection between us and bacteria so deriving an antibiotic is an obvious connection. Looking for say an anti cholesterol drug on the other hand and your stuck with random interactions.
  - dnautics 7y ago
    normalizing by number of species (which is a vague concept anyways, most species nomenclature in bacteria is driven by the need to publish - salmonella and e coli are basically the same) is completely irrelevant concept for this discussion. When you're looking for 'random interactions' most chemists reach for combichem anyways. Look at all of the drugs that treat CML - (gleevec eg) none of them come from any biotic source.