Assignment task: With numerous pathogenic bacteria resistant to traditional antibiotics, searches for novel antibiotics are actively underway. Two new antibiotics, darobactin and teixobactin, currently seem very promising. Together, the two novel antibiotics cover a range of Gram positive/Gram negative pathogens, but singly, each antibiotic is limited in efficacy to one or the other Gram type. Darobactin binds to a key outer membrane protein (BamA), inhibiting BamA from carrying out its normal role: assisting other outer membrane proteins to fold properly. Teixobactin acts at the outermost surface of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane where it inhibits a key step in the processing of the cell wall polymers, peptidoglycan and teichoic acids.
a) Assuming clinical trials of these antibiotics yield marketable drugs, which of the two - darobactin or teixobactin - might someday be used to treat a life-threatening infection caused by cocci that stain blue/purple in a Gram stain?
b) Microbiologists are also searching for new antibiotics to treat fungal infections (e.g., Yeast infections and others). Describe the potential for darobactin and/or teixobactin to effectively treat patients infected with fungi: