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Group of chemical compounds
Keanumycins are a group of chemical compounds isolated from bacteria in the genus
Pseudomonas .
[1] They are classified as
nonribosomal
lipopeptides and they have a variety of
antimicrobial activities. Keanumycin A is active against the
amoebas
Dictyostelium discoideum (
IC50 =
4.4 nM),
Acanthamoeba castellanii (IC50 = 2.0 μM), and
Acanthamoeba comandoni (IC50 = 3.1 μM) which cause infections in humans.
[1]
Fermentation broth containing keanumycins is effective against the fungus
Botrytis cinerea and can be directly applied to plants to stop the development of
Botrytis blight .
[1]
Researchers at the
Hans Knöll Institute who first isolated and characterized these compounds named them after the actor
Keanu Reeves because their deadliness was perceived to be comparable to Reeves in
his film roles .
[2]
[3]
Chemical structures
References
^
a
b
c Götze, Sebastian; Vij, Raghav; Burow, Katja; Thome, Nicola; Urbat, Lennart; Schlosser, Nicolas; Pflanze, Sebastian; Müller, Rita; Hänsch, Veit G.; Schlabach, Kevin; Fazlikhani, Leila; Walther, Grit; Dahse, Hans-Martin; Regestein, Lars; Brunke, Sascha; Hube, Bernhard; Hertweck, Christian; Franken, Philipp; Stallforth, Pierre (2023).
"Ecological Niche-Inspired Genome Mining Leads to the Discovery of Crop-Protecting Nonribosomal Lipopeptides Featuring a Transient Amino Acid Building Block" . J. Am. Chem. Soc . 145 (4): 2342–2353.
doi :
10.1021/jacs.2c11107 .
PMC
9897216 .
PMID
36669196 .
^ Ronja Münch (February 6, 2023).
"Keanu Reeves, the molecule: New active ingredient from bacteria could protect plants" . phys.org .
^ Taylor Nicioli (March 3, 2023).
"Newly discovered chemicals are so deadly to fungi they are named after Keanu Reeves" . CNN.