Phosphonic acid compounds and screening method

A method for manufacturing a medicament for treating a bacterial infection in a subject in need thereof, said medicament comprising a phosphonic acid antibiotic, said antibiotic isolated from a bacterial strain of Actinobacteria having a gene encoding pepM or a pepM-dependent biosynthetic pathway, said bacterial strain selected via the following steps:

• a) reviving a bacterial strain from a library of lyophilized vials or slants,
• b) isolating the genomic DNA from each strain,
• c) screening the genomic DNA by PCR using four pairs of degenerate primers designed to amplify a 406-bp conserved fragment within bacterial pepM genes (forward:
• pepMF, CGCCGGCGTCTGCNTNGARGAYAA;
• reverse:
• pepMR, GGCGCGCATCATGTGRTTNGCVYA;
• pepMX, GCGCGCATCATGTGGTTNGCCCADAT;
• pepMW, GCGCGCATCATGTGGTTNGCRTADAT;
• pepMZ, GCGCGCATCATGTTGTTNCCCCADAT),
• d) screening the resulting PCR products by electrophoresis to retrieve pepM sequences, and
• e) selecting those strains with the pepM sequences.