Plants use antibiotic-producing bacteria to protect themselves against infection.

Plant roots are protected against infection by antibiotic-producing bacteria

We’re all used to taking antibiotics when we are ill, but did you know that plants use them too? New research from scientists in the Netherlands and USA published this month in Science has revealed that antibiotic-producing bacteria that live in the soil can protect plants roots from infection.

One of the most important new fields of biology is the study of microbiomes – communities of microorganisms that are closely associated with animals and plants. The human microbiome is vital to our health, with the microorganisms in our gut helping us to digest food, for example.

The trouble is, most of the bacteria and fungi that make up these microbiomes cannot be grown in a laboratory, as we simply don’t know the conditions in which they are able to grow. Thankfully with the rapid advancement of DNA and RNA sequencing technologies it is possible to identify the microbes without ever having to grow them – known as metagenomics.