Open AccessCloning, sequencing and production of the lantibiotic mersacidin
Author(s) -
Bierbaum Gabriele,
Brötz Heike,
Koller KlausPeter,
Sahl HansGeorg
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1995.tb07460.x
Subject(s) - lantibiotics , bacillus subtilis , cloning (programming) , lanthionine , peptide sequence , biochemistry , biology , structural gene , amino acid , microbiology and biotechnology , peptide , protein precursor , biosynthesis , bacteriocin , gene , bacteria , escherichia coli , genetics , antimicrobial , computer science , programming language
Mersacidin is a lanthionine‐containing peptide antibiotic that shows a good in vivo efficiency against methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus . It is excreted during early stationary phase and could be purified from culture supernatant in a one‐step procedure by reversed phase HPLC. Its structural gene was cloned from chromosomal DNA of the producer strain Bacillus subtilis HIL Y‐85,54728. Sequencing revealed that pre‐mersacidin consists of an unusually long 48 amino acid leader sequence and a 20 amino acid propeptide part which is modified during biosynthesis to the mature lantibiotic. The comparison of the mersacidin prepeptide with those of hitherto known lantibiotics demonstrates that mersacidin is more closely related to type B lantibiotic cinnamycin than to type A lantibiotics.