The platypus and the miracle of Mother Nature

Ornothornychus anatinus. That’s the proper name of the platypus [1] – an egg-laying mammal (aka monotreme; the only other monotreme’s the echidna) found in Tasmania (including in the Mole Creek at our bridge) and mainland Australia’s east coast. Platypus spend about half their time in waterside burrows. Also females dig elaborate 20-metre long nesting burrows where they lay and hatch their eggs, and which they share with their unweaned young for about four months until the young are weaned. Platypus watchers have long been intrigued as to why platypus young don’t get infections – given they’re born thumbnail-sized into germ-laden burrows. Last week Victorian Government and Sydney University researchers announced that when sequencing the platypus genome they’d located two new peptides (i.e. proteins) with a very potent antibiotic effect [2]. These peptides, found in platypus milk, aren’t related to existing antibiotics, are around 10 times more potent than existing antibiotics, and have already been shown to kill Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA]. Also, and even more potentially usefully, these peptides are being tested to identify if they reduce microbes in the rumens of cattle and sheep, so reducing methane emissions [3]. Australian livestock produces 17% of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions; so the potential benefit to our planet’s self evident – and massive. One can but marvel at Mother Nature and her ingenuity.