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Antibiotics
Antibiotics are compounds which kill or prevent the growth of microorganisms. Antibiotics have different modes of action, typically working by disrupting cell wall synthesis, preventing nucleic acid metabolism, or disturbing a microorganism’s ability to synthesize proteins. Antibiotics can act on either gram-negative or gram-positive bacteria, and some are active against both. Antibiotics may also act on some yeasts, molds, and mycoplasma. Major classes of antibiotics include penicillins, tetracyclines, macrolides, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and aminoglycosides. Thermo Fisher Scientific provides a comprehensive line of antibiotics as well as ready-to-use sterile filtered antibiotic solutions for cell line selection, cell culture media and buffer supplements, and other life science research applications.
Natural antibiotics have existed for centuries prior to scientists identifying and isolating active moieties responsible for anti-bacterial activity. Today, antibiotics are widely used in the life sciences not only to eliminate contamination, but also to identify bacterial mechanisms of resistance, protein modification, and DNA/RNA manipulation to develop new anti-neoplastic compounds. Antibiotics are interchangeably called antibacterials, yet the term antibiotic today often includes antifungal and anti-neoplastic reagents.
Antibacterials are generally divided into two major groups based on their biological mode of action on microorganisms—bactericidal compounds kill bacteria, while bacteriostatic compounds inhibit or interfere with protein synthesis and cell wall biosynthesis. Additionally, antibacterial antibiotics may target certain specific types of bacteria, such as gram-positive or gram-negative organisms, while others are more broad-spectrum and attack a range of bacteria. Specific antibacterials may inhibit the synthesis of cell walls, preventing further bacterial growth. Ampicillin and bacitracin are examples of antibiotics that inhibit enzymes associated with cell wall synthesis, preventing bacterial growth.
Ciprofloxacin and actinomycin D interfere with DNA and RNA synthesis, respectively, and are often studied as antitumor compounds which can attack quickly growing malignant cells. Doxycycline, streptomycin, and kanamycin are examples of antibiotics that inhibit protein synthesis by interfering with formation processes at the 30S or 50S subunits of the 70S bacterial ribosome. Finally, antibiotics such as monensin and valinomycin act as ionophores and form cationic (Na+, K+, H+) channels in bacterial cell walls and membranes, which in turn detrimentally change the intracellular cationic environment of the bacterial cells, typically causing lysis and cell death.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is pleased to offer a diverse and comprehensive portfolio of antibiotic products. These antibiotics are widely used in mammalian and plant cell culture, cancer research, and proteomics research, and are also used as anti-neoplastic agents. Our extensive line of antibiotics includes more than 240 high-purity compounds for your various antibacterial research needs.
In mammalian cell cultures, there are typically two types of contamination concerns: contamination of one cell line with another, and the contamination of cultures with microbiological organisms like bacteria, mycoplasma, fungi, yeast, and endotoxins. The detrimental impact of microbiological contamination should not be underestimated. Fortunately, judicious use of selected antibiotics in cell culture media may control and eliminate contamination from bacteria, fungi, mycoplasma, and yeasts. Thermo Fisher Scientific offers a wide range of antibiotics designed to control bacterial contamination in cell culture media. A selected sampling is listed below.
In plant cell cultures, antibiotics are typically used to maintain sterility of the media. Bacteria, fungi, and mycoplasma can contaminate the media and rapidly deplete essential nutrients necessary for plant cell growth. It is best to use the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antibiotics that are effective for controlling bacteria, because the antibiotics themselves may be phytotoxic, and may restrict rooting, general growth, and multiplication in some plant cultures. We are pleased to offer a wide range of antibiotic products for plant cell culture research.
Numerous antibiotics have been shown to be involved in modifying nucleic acid and protein synthesis. They function by interfering and inhibiting DNA and RNA synthesis. Other antibiotics disrupt cell wall synthesis and cause premature chain termination. Below are several of our many antibiotics useful in nucleic acid and proteomics research.