Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Slime moulds souped up with plant genes churn out drugs

The amoeba life stage of a common slime mould outshines workhorse microbes at producing certain medicinal compounds.
Dictyostelium discoideum growing in a unicellular, vegetative state

The slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum has a vegetative form (above) that can turn into an amoeba form useful for making drugs. Credit: B. Kelly et al./Nature (CC BY 4.0)

The amoeba form of a slime mould can be engineered to produce a range of natural, medically useful compounds, including several that are used to treat nerve damage and pain1.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 601, 300 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00067-w

References

  1. Reimer, C. et al. Nature Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-01143-8 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links