Cushnie, TPT, Luang-In, V and Sexton, DW (2024) Necrophages and necrophiles: a review of their antibacterial defenses and biotechnological potential. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology. pp. 1-18. ISSN 0738-8551

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Abstract

With antibiotic resistance on the rise, there is an urgent need for new antibacterial drugs and products to treat or prevent infection. Many such products in current use, for example human and veterinary antibiotics and antimicrobial food preservatives, were discovered and developed from nature. Natural selection acts on all living organisms and the presence of bacterial competitors or pathogens in an environment can favor the evolution of antibacterial adaptations. In this review, we ask if vultures, blow flies and other carrion users might be a good starting point for antibacterial discovery based on the selection pressure they are under from bacterial disease. Dietary details are catalogued for over 600 of these species, bacterial pathogens associated with the diets are described, and an overview of the antibacterial defenses contributing to disease protection is given. Biotechnological applications for these defenses are then discussed, together with challenges facing developers and possible solutions. Examples include use of (a) the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) gene sarcotoxin IA to improve crop resistance to bacterial disease, (b) peptide antibiotics such as serrawettin W2 as antibacterial drug leads, (c) lectins for targeted drug delivery, (d) bioconversion-generated chitin as an antibacterial biomaterial, (e) bacteriocins as antibacterial food preservatives and (f) mutualistic microbiota bacteria as alternatives to antibiotics in animal feed. We show that carrion users encounter a diverse range of bacterial pathogens through their diets and interactions, have evolved many antibacterial defenses, and are a promising source of genes, molecules, and microbes for medical, agricultural, and food industry product development.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Critical Reviews in Biotechnology. Cushnie, T. P. T., Luang-In, V., & Sexton, D. W. (2024). Necrophages and necrophiles: a review of their antibacterial defenses and biotechnological potential. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/07388551.2024.2389175. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International - Creative Commons ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	biocides; biomaterials; biotechnology; drug discovery; immunity; necrophagous; necrophilous; probiotics; scavenger; symbiosis; 06 Biological Sciences; 10 Technology; Biotechnology
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology R Medicine > RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica
Divisions:	Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2024 13:53
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2024 13:53
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/07388551.2024.2389175
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24065

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