Professor Matt Hutchings
Group Leader Harnessing Biosynthesis for Sustainable Food and Health (HBio), Advancing Plant Health (APH) , Head of Department
Matt’s group works on the specialised metabolites made by Streptomyces species and closely related actinomycete bacteria, which include more than half of all known antibiotics.
They are particularly interested in the chemical ecology of these bacteria and their natural products.
For example, antibiotic-producing actinomycete bacteria interact with insects and plants and protect them against infection by pathogenic bacteria and fungi in return for food and housing. This is called a defensive mutualism (mutually beneficial symbiosis).
Understanding these interactions will help find new and useful natural products, including new antibiotics, and will also help protect important crop plants against disease.
Selected Publications
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Feeney MA, Newitt JT, Addington E, Algora-Gallardo L, Allan C, Balis L, Birke AS, Castaño-Espriu L, Charkoudian LK, Devine R, Gayrard D, Hamilton J, Hennrich O, Hoskisson PA, Keith-Baker M, Klein JG, Kruasuwan W, Mark DR, Mast Y, McHugh RE, McLean TC, Mohit E, Munnoch JT, Murray J, Noble K, Otani H, Parra J, Pereira CF, Perry L, Pintor-Escobar L, Pritchard L, Prudence SMM, Russell AH, Schniete JK, Seipke RF, Sélem-Mojica N, Undabarrena A, Vind K, van Wezel, Wilkinson B, Worsley SF, Duncan KR, Fernández-Martínez LT, Hutchings M (2022)ActinoBase: tools and protocols for researchers working on Streptomyces and other filamentous actinobacteria.Microbial genomics (8)Publisher's version: 2057-5858
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Devine R,McDonald H,Qin Z,Arnold C,Noble K,Chandra G,Wilkinson B,Hutchings M (2021)Re-wiring the regulation of the formicamycin biosynthetic gene cluster to enable the development of promising antibacterial compounds.Cell chemical biologyPublisher's version: 2451-9448
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Worsley SF,Innocent TM,Holmes NA,Al-Bassam MM,Schiott M,Wilkinson B,Murrell JC,Boomsma JJ,Yu DW,Hutchings MI (2021)Competition-based screening secures the evolutionary stability of a defensive microbiomeBMC Biology (19)Publisher's version: 1741-7007