Sorangium cellulosum

"Sorangium cellulosum" is a soil-dwelling Gram-negative bacteria of the group myxobacteria. [cite journal | author = Julien B, Fehd R | title = Development of a mariner-based transposon for use in Sorangium cellulosum. | url=http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/69/10/6299?view=long&pmid=14532095 | journal = Appl Environ Microbiol | volume = 69 | issue = 10 | pages = 6299–301 | year = 2003 | pmid = 14532095 | doi = 10.1128/AEM.69.10.6299-6301.2003] It is motile and shows gliding motility. It has an unusually-large genome 12,200,000 base pairs in size. [cite journal | author = Pradella S, Hans A, Spröer C, Reichenbach H, Gerth K, Beyer S | title = Characterisation, genome size and genetic manipulation of the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum So ce56. | journal = Arch Microbiol | volume = 178 | issue = 6 | pages = 484–92 | year = 2002 | pmid = 12420170 | doi = 10.1007/s00203-002-0479-2] A more recent work sequenced the genome of "Sorangium cellulosum" So ce56 and put its size at 13033779 base pairs making it the largest bacterial genome sequenced to date.cite journal | author=Schneiker S et al. | title=Complete genome sequence of the myxobacterium "Sorangium cellulosum" | journal=Nature Biotechnology | year=2007 | pages=1281–1289 | volume=25 | issue=11 | doi=10.1038/nbt1354 ]

Clinical use

Metabolites secreted by "Sorangium cellulosum" known as epothilones have been noted to have antineoplastic activity. This has led to the development of analogs which mimic its activity. One such analog, known as Ixabepilone is a US FDA approved chemotherapy agent for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. [http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/fda-ixabepilone]

References