title: Strategies for the isolation and characterization of antibacterial lantibiotics.
abstract: Lantibiotics are biologically active peptides produced by several strains from the phyla Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. They are ribosomally synthesized and undergo posttranslational modifications that endow them with the characteristic (methyl)-lanthionine residues. As a result, lantibiotics contain a variable number of rings, each carrying one thioether link. Many lantibiotics inhibit growth of Gram-positive bacterial strains by interfering with peptidoglycan formation. Because they bind to the key intermediate lipid II at a site not affected by clinically used antibiotics, they are effective against multidrug-resistant strains. We describe a bioassay-based method suitable for finding antibacterial lantibiotics from actinomycete strains and provide selected procedures for characterizing newly discovered lantibiotics for their antibacterial properties.
authors.affiliation: NAICONS Scrl, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jabes
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Donadio
mesh_terms: D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins