The results of the study are published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Bacteria of the genus Pandoraea have not been studied much to date. Their name is reminiscent of Pandora's box from Greek mythology, which is a symbol of uncontrollable danger.

"We have been working with an antibiotic-resistant bacterium," says Elena Herzog. She is the first author of the publication and works as a doctoral researcher in the team of Christian Hertweck, the head of the study at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI). However, like so many things in nature, these pathogenic bacteria do not only have negative properties.

"Pandoraea bacteria not only harbor risks. They also produce natural products with an antibacterial effect."

Despite the high health risk posed by Pandoraea, their molecular properties were hardly known until now. "We only knew that these bacteria occur in nature and that they can be pathogenic because they have been found in the lung microbiome of patients with cystic fibrosis or sepsis," explains Herzog.

The race for iron

As with most living organisms, iron is also essential for bacteria. "Iron plays a central role in enzymes and the respiratory chain of living organisms, for example," explains Herzog.