Production of the novel two-peptide lantibiotic lichenicidin by Bacillus licheniformis DSM 13.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Lantibiotics are small microbial peptide antibiotics that are characterized by the presence of the thioether amino acids lanthionine and methyllanthionine. Lantibiotics possess structural genes which encode inactive prepeptides. During maturation, the prepeptide undergoes posttranslational modifications including the introduction of rare amino acids as lanthionine and methyllanthione as well as the proteolytic removal of the leader. The structural gene (lanA) as well as the other genes which are involved in lantibiotic modification (lanM, lanB, lanC, lanP), regulation (lanR, lanK), export (lanT(P)) and immunity (lanEFG) are organized in biosynthetic gene clusters.

Methodology/principal findings

Sequence comparisons in the NCBI database showed that Bacillus licheni

SUBMITTER: Dischinger J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2727956 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature