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Published on: September 30, 2014
Streptococcus rattus strain BHT produces both a class I two-component lantibiotic and a class II bacteriocin
Otto Hyink1, Mayooran Balakrishnan, John R Tagg
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Abstract:
Streptococcus rattus strain BHT is a species representative and strong bacteriocin producer. Here we report that S. rattus BHT produces two quite different types of bacteriocin activity, named BHT-A and BHT-B. The two bacteriocins were purified and analysed for activity and by MALDI-TOF mass spectrophotometry. BHT-A was found to be a variant of the two-component lantibiotic, Smb. BHT-B is a non-modified 5195Da peptide with some similarity to the tryptophan-rich Staphylococcus aureus bacteriocin, aureocin A53. Six S. rattus and two S. mutans strains were found to contain both the BHT-A and BHT-B genetic loci.
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