New Jersey Is About To Get It’s Own State Germ

New Jersey is now considering having their own state microbe, and the microbe that will be getting the potential honor is Streptomyces griseus.

According to New Jersey Monthly, the Garden State has their own state animal (horse), bird (eastern goldfinch), insect (honey bee), fish (brook trout), flower (violet), tree (northern red oak), reptile (bog turtle), and even a dinosaur (Hadrosaurus foulkii). Yet what they don't have is an official state microbe. Yes, you read that right. New Jersey may be on it's way to getting their own state germ.

Legislature is voting in the very near future to include Streptomyces griseus to be the state's official microbe. The reason this micro organism is getting all this attention recently is because NJTV News reported that it helped create one of the most famous antibiotics that cured tuberculosis, Streptomycin. Another fun fact is that it was discovered in NJ at Rutgers University in the early 1940s.

Now we'll just have to wait and see if New Jersey will become the second state to declare a state microbe. Oregon was the first, and theirs is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is better known as brewer’s yeast. That little microbe helps make Oregonian craft beers.

Get to know more about Streptomyces griseus and its campaign to be NJ's microbe in the video below