Daptomycin is no newcomer to the stage of antibiotics, yet its mechanism of action has been a source of controversy since its discovery over 30 years ago. Exciting results of a collaborative study between scientists in The Netherlands, Germany and the UK reported recently in PNAS (24^th October), have cleared this controversy, shedding new light onto how daptamycin kills bacteria and providing a fresh perspective of the model of the cell membrane applied to antimicrobial interaction. Using the model organism Bacillus subtilis in a comprehensive mode-of-action study applying fluorescent light microscopy combined with proteomic and biochemical approaches, these researchers showed that daptomycin perturbs fluid microdomains in bacterial cell membranes, thereby interfering with membrane-bound cell wall and lipid synthesis processes.

Contributed by Susan J. Tzotzos

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