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Yes. In a 2017 study, bacteria isolated from the ear of a roadkill opossum produced cyclic lipodepsipeptides that inhibited Candida albicans biofilm formation in laboratory assays. The finding shows how roadkill can provide a route to investigate microbial natural products; it does not show that these molecules are medicines or clinically effective antifungals.
How researchers sampled roadkill
Jeremy L. Motley and colleagues developed an opportunistic way to explore bacteria associated with non-human mammal microbiomes: sampling fresh roadkill rather than experimenting on live animals. Over two years, they collected carcasses near the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Carcasses were generally considered fresh if they were thought to have been struck within roughly ten hours.
The researchers used sterile swabs at intact body openings or collected material from gastrointestinal tracts. The animals included skunks, armadillos, deer, raccoons, squirrels and opossums. This approach made otherwise inaccessible mammalian microbial communities available for laboratory study.
What the researchers found
Motley et al. (2017) reported 3,659 bacterial isolates from the sampled roadkill. Of these, 1,425—39% of the total—came from opossum carcasses, which the authors described as especially rich in morphologically unique bacteria. These counts describe isolates recovered in this study, not the number of bacterial species or a measure of how common those bacteria are in wild animals.
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The team paired chemical screening with biological assays to look for bacterial products worth investigating. The workflow used laser-ablation electrospray ionization mass spectrometry alongside bioassay testing, linking chemical analysis to tests of biological activity.
Why the opossum-ear isolates mattered
The highlighted findings came from two bacterial isolates collected from an opossum’s ear: one identified as Pseudomonas sp. and the other as Serratia sp. They produced several cyclic lipodepsipeptides, a class of compounds that includes both new and previously known molecules.
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In laboratory assays, the compounds inhibited biofilm formation by Candida albicans at concentrations below those needed to inhibit the yeast’s viability. That distinction matters: an effect on biofilm formation is not the same as killing the organism, and neither result alone demonstrates that a compound can treat an infection in a person or animal.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsWhat the result does—and does not—establish
The study establishes a research lead: bacteria recovered from roadkill can produce chemically interesting compounds with measurable activity in laboratory testing. It does not establish safety, effectiveness in living animals or people, a usable dose, regulatory approval or commercial availability. The compounds should not be treated as antifungal medicines or as a basis for treatment advice.
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The paper appeared online on November 21, 2016, and in the March 24, 2017 issue of the Journal of Natural Products (volume 80, issue 3, pages 598–608). Its authors reported support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; that funding acknowledgment is not an endorsement of a product.
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Sources
- Motley JL et al., “Opportunistic Sampling of Roadkill as an Entry Point to Accessing Natural Products Assembled by Bacteria Associated with Non-anthropoidal Mammalian Microbiomes,” Journal of Natural Products 80(3), 598–608 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.6b00772.
- Jamie Durrani, “Roadkill: new molecules at the side of the road,” Chemistry World, January 4, 2017.
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