Capitol Fax: State could designate an official microbe

Saw this at CapFax yesterday. Very interesting hopefully there is a biologist or doctor here who will recognize this microbe

Illinois on the verge of designating an official state microbe https://t.co/vlrYDuzy0j

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) May 28, 2021

Here's the proposed bill and the name of the state microbe, hopefully.

Sec. 105. State microbe. Penicillium chrysogenum NRRL 1951 is designated the official State microbe of the State of Illinois.

This bill actually passed the Senate in Springfield on Friday. And when a state designates something usually there is a connection to the state so here's more:

Passing through the senate today is a bill (HB 1879) that honors the discovery of the mold in Illinois that was the precursor of the one used to make the penicillin antibiotic for WW2 is used even today. The bill is to designate Penicillium rubens as Illinois state Microbe. This mold was discovered on a cantaloupe found in a down town Peoria, IL market during the early part of WW2. Earlier, a mold brought from Britain to Peoria wasn’t productive enough so mold samples were collected from around the world to screen them for greater production of penicillin. Of those the Peoria mold was selected to produce the life saving drug that saved thousands of military lives during WW2 and millions since. A recent program on Public TV (Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer: Medicine) mentioned that penicillin was equal to the atomic bomb in importance. We are past due to have this mold as our state microbe.

Well if the microbe is used to treat bacterial infections, then make pennicillium reubens as our state microbe.

BTW, also noted:

The current bill in the statehouse to name an Illinois state microbe has some history. It was first SB 1857 an introduced in the 2019 Spring Session of the Illinois Senate. A recent analysis DNA done found that the species (chrysogenum) was incorrect. Initial classification had been done as to the physical structure of the mold. It was now to be Penicillium rubens. So a correction was done to the bill’s wording. That slowed the bill’s passing through each state house and it didn’t pass in the 2019 Spring Session. In November of 2019, the bill was on the docket during the Fall Veto Session. It didn’t make it to the floor. The 2020 Pandemic Spring Session also saw no progress. Dual new bills were introduced in the 2021 Spring Sessions of the IL Senate and IL House. They were SB 2004 and HB 1879. The House bill is currently the official bill. As previously said, it is now in the Senate for a second reading. Time is short for it to get passed through the House and on to the Governor’s desk sometime this summer.

The corrected bill was passed by the state senate on Friday with Penicillium rubens NRRL 1951. OK. :)