sexta-feira, 23 de setembro de 2011

An extemelly curious observation

As i mentioned in my last post, i spent most of the year of 2010 in a continuous fight againts endogenous and exogenous contaminations of Olea europaea explants, testing all types of desinfection procedures and antibiotics. Some of them i must say quite original but nevertheless effective.- I remember getting to the lab everyday and be overwelmed by the smell of garlic wich reminded me those old portugueses taverns.=) garlic works...
-The explants wich i received almost weekly from one of my faithfull partners, made the work very intensive, more specifically the selection of the right material, wich was frequently a 2 or 3 days journey. Of course, inoculation in the culture medium after desinfection, should be quick, to avoid excessive oxidation of the tissues. This meant long work shifts sometimes night through.
- One of the inumerous substances wich i tested was this dark red powder, with very exquisite solubility in DMSO (dimethylsulfoxide). It's name... RIFAMPICIN.
Rifampicin is a semisynthetic compound produced by the bacteria  Amycolatopsis rifamycinica. A quick search on google points out that it is a type of bacteria that lives in soil. A deeper search relates this genus to nytrogen fixation through symbiosis, and antifungal activity besides is efectiveness in the treatment of comon diseases provoqued by mycobacteria like tuberculosis.
Moreover if we look at the structure of the compound we find four atoms of nytrogen in it.
Check it out:
What is my point?...



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