title: Bovicin HJ50-like lantibiotics, a novel subgroup of lantibiotics featured by an indispensable disulfide bridge.
abstract: Lantibiotics are ribosomally-synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides with potent antimicrobial activities. Discovery of novel lantibiotics has been greatly accelerated with the soaring release of genomic information of microorganisms. As a unique class II lantibiotic, bovicin HJ50 is produced by Streptococcus bovis HJ50 and contains one rare disulfide bridge. By using its precursor BovA as a drive sequence, 16 BovA-like peptides were revealed in a wide variety of species. From them, three representative novel lan loci from Clostridium perfringens D str. JGS1721, Bacillus cereus As 1.348 and B. thuringiensis As 1.013 were identified by PCR screening. The corresponding mature lantibiotics designated perecin, cerecin and thuricin were obtained and structurally elucidated to be bovicin HJ50-like lantibiotics especially by containing a conserved disulfide bridge. The disulfide bridge was substantiated to be essential for the function of bovicin HJ50-like lantibiotics as its disruption eliminated their antimicrobial activities. Further analysis indicated that the disulfide bridge played a crucial role in maintaining the hydrophobicity of bovicin HJ50, which might facilitate it to exert antimicrobial function. This study unveiled a novel subgroup of disulfide-containing lantibiotics from bacteria of different niches and further demonstrated the indispensable role of disulfide bridge in these novel bovicin HJ50-like lantibiotics.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Hongchu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Kunling
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhizeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhong
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects; D057225:Data Mining; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D004220:Disulfides / Q000737:chemistry*; D056426:Genetic Loci / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D016985:Streptococcus bovis / Q000235:genetics; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D001430:Bacteriocins; D004220:Disulfides; C000591653:bovicin HJ50, Streptococcus bovis