title: Cloning, sequencing and production of the lantibiotic mersacidin.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie der Universität Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bierbaum
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brötz
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Sahl
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics; D001430:Bacteriocins; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016106:Methicillin Resistance / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins; D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010455:Peptides; C069959:mersacidin