Leveraging the power of CRISPR-Cas9 to awaken antibiotics from their silent gene clusters

The bacterium Streptomyces roseosporus is the source of many common antibiotics such as daptomycin, which is active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and glycopeptide-resistant enterococci. A*STAR researchers have just unearthed a new antibiotic, auroramycin, from a silent biosynthetic gene cluster discovered in the S. roseosporus genome, and believe there are many more just waiting to be found.