Or maybe we could use some form of the protein to try to isolate its binding partner on the bacterium, which might be some structure on the outside of the bacterium."Īccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are becoming a serious threat to public health worldwide. "This would allow us to see how the activity changes each time, until we build up an understanding of the mechanism of how this works.
"In theory there are a number of approaches - we could tweak the structure a little by making site-directed mutants of the protein in the lab," says Newman. So, how could this fancy new antibacterial protein be used to fight superbugs? According to Newman, the research team plans to begin by figuring out the relationship between the extra-curly form of the protein and its bacteria-killing powers.
"It's like being a florist and seeing a completely new flower." "The most exciting thing for me was to see a protein shape that had never been seen before," lead author Janet Newman, a researcher at CSIRO, says in an email. The research team managed to recreate the MLP in the lab, purify it, crystallize it and use X-rays to determine its 3D structure at the atomic level - a structure that has never been seen in any of the 100,000 proteins discovered to date. What makes this monotreme lactation protein (MLP) so strange is its shape: Its folds form tight ringlets, which is why it was christened the "Shirley Temple" protein after the iconic hair of the child star. A 2014 study found that, while all mammals' milk has antibacterial properties, platypus milk seems to have very special antimicrobial powers.Ī new study published Main the journal Structural Biology Communications reports that the biochemical reason for the special bug-busting properties of platypus milk is predictably weird: It contains a protein with a unique and previously unknown structure that might be key in fighting bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. But don't worry - platypus evolution came up with a solution to the problem of bacteria. And if you think that might be a bit unsanitary, especially for an animal that swims around in farm ponds all day, you'd be right. Although platypuses (yes, you can also say platypi and platypodes, if you want) nurse their young, they don't have nipples, so the milk just sort of oozes out of their mammary glands and the babies lap it up off their mother's fur. The males have venomous spurs on their hind legs, they don't use their tails to steer or propel them through the water, but to store body fat, and their bills are so sensitive they can detect the electromagnetic fields radiated by other organisms, allowing them to swim with their ears, eyes and nose closed.īut listen, it gets weirder. This egg-laying mammal chews its food with gravel because it lacks teeth - in fact, it doesn't even have a stomach, but an esophagus that connects directly to its intestines. Significantly the only other record of a platypus hatched in captivity was also at the Healesville Sanctuary in 1944.And it's not like the platypus's outlandish appearance is just a cover for an unremarkable physiology and life history. But platypus keepers Norm Holland and Les Fisk at the Healesville Sanctuary realised they had succeeded when the unnamed baby platypus was spotted on video tape from surveillance cameras over Easter. This secretive existence in an inaccessible burrow has been difficult to observe in the wild and almost impossible to reproduce in captivity. The eggs hatch after 10 days but it can be three of four months before the babies are weaned and emerge from the burrow for the first time. The female platypus lays as many as three small eggs at the end of a nesting burrow that can be up to ten metres in length. News of a successful birth may herald a new era in captive platypus management. One of two types of egg-laying mammals (the other being the echidnas), platypuses are notoriously difficult to keep in captivity.
The newly-hatched platypus is so far known only as Baby XĪ baby platypus hatched at the Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, is believed to be only the second platypus born in captivity.
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