Pseudomycoicidin, a Class II Lantibiotic from Bacillus pseudomycoides.

Lantibiotics are ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides with substantial posttranslational modifications. They are characterized by the unique amino acids lanthionine and methyllanthionine, which are introduced by dehydration of Ser/Thr residues and linkage of the resulting dehydrated amino acids with Cys residues. BLAST searches using the mersacidin biosynthetic enzyme (MrsM) in the NCBI database revealed a new class II lantibiotic gene cluster in Bacillus pseudomycoides DSM 12442.

Identification of agr-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus harbouring the class A mec complex by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

A small peptide called PSM-mec is encoded on the type II, III and VIII SCCmec cassettes present in the genomes of nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. This peptide is excreted by agr-positive strains, which represent about 89% of the strains of our collection and can be identified by the presence of delta toxin in mass spectrometry. The presence of the peptide in the MALDI-TOF MS spectra of whole cells was proved by a knock-down experiment employing a clone that expressed antisense RNA to psm-mec.

Lantibiotics: promising candidates for future applications in health care.

The immense potential of bacteria for production of antimicrobials represents an inexhaustible source of new antibiotics. An emerging class of natural products is constituted by ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs). "Lantibiotics" (lanthionine and/or methyl-lanthionine containing antibiotics) belong to the earliest members of this class.

Expression of the lantibiotic mersacidin in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42.

Unlabelled: Lantibiotics are small peptide antibiotics that contain the characteristic thioether amino acids lanthionine and methyllanthionine. As ribosomally synthesized peptides, lantibiotics possess biosynthetic gene clusters which contain 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). The lantibiotic mersacidin is produced by Bacillus sp.

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

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.