title: New type non-lantibiotic bacteriocins: circular and leaderless bacteriocins.
abstract: Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that are ribosomally synthesised by bacteria. Bacteriocins produced by Gram-positive bacteria, including lactic acid bacteria, are under focus as the next generation of safe natural biopreservatives and as therapeutic alternatives to antibiotics. Recently, two novel types of non-lantibiotic class II bacteriocins have been reported with unique characteristics in their structure and biosynthesis mechanism. One is a circular bacteriocin that contains a head-to-tail structure in the mature form, and the other is a leaderless bacteriocin without an N-terminal extension in the precursor peptide. A circular structure can provide the peptide with remarkable stability against various stresses; indeed, circular bacteriocins are known to possess higher stability than general linear bacteriocins. Leaderless bacteriocins are distinct from general bacteriocins, because they do not contain N-terminal leader sequences, which are responsible for the recognition process during secretion and for inactivation of bacteriocins inside producer cells. Leaderless bacteriocins do not require any post-translational processing for activity. These two novel types of bacteriocins are promising antimicrobial compounds, and their biosynthetic mechanisms are expected to be applied in synthetic biology to design new peptides and for new mass production systems. However, many questions remain about their biosynthesis. In this review, we introduce recent studies on these types of bacteriocins and their potential to open a new world of antimicrobial peptides.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Division of Applied Molecular Microbiology and Biomass Chemistry, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Graduate School, Kyushu University, Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zendo
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sonomoto
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D001952:Bridged-Ring Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D017510:Protein Folding; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000737:chemistry; D058615:Synthetic Biology
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins; D001952:Bridged-Ring Compounds; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; C012306:enterocin