The calcium-dependent lipopeptide antibiotics represent a promising new class of antimicrobials for use in combating drug-resistant bacteria. At present, daptomycin is the only such lipopeptide used clinically and displays potent antimicrobial activity against a number of pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria. Given the increasing need for new antibiotics, practical synthetic access to unnatural an...

The genome of the rhizobacterium Bacillus subtilis XF-1 is 4.06 Mb in size and harbors 3,853 coding sequences (CDS). Giant gene clusters were dedicated to the nonribosomal synthesis of antimicrobial lipopeptides and polyketides. Remarkably, XF-1 possesses a gene cluster involved in the synthesis of chitosanase that is related to the suppression of the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae.

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain RHNK22 isolated from groundnut rhizosphere showed direct and indirect plant growth-promoting traits along with biosurfactant activity and reduction in surface tension of water. Biosurfactants were identified as lipopeptides (surfactin, iturin, and fengycin) by molecular and biochemical analysis in our studies.

Paenibacillus polymyxa NRRL B-30509 and Paenibacillus terrae NRRL B-30644 produce tridecaptin A that is inhibitory to Campylobacter jejuni, as well as lantibiotics in the paenicidin family. Here, we report the draft genome sequences of P. polymyxa NRRL B-30509 and P. terrae NRRL B-30644 that contain gene clusters for various nonribosomal lipopeptides.

Bacillus atrophaeus UCMB-5137 shows an extraordinary activity in root colonization and plant and crop protection. Its draft genome sequence comprises 21 contigs of 4.11 Mb, harboring 4,167 coding sequences (CDS). The genome carries several genes encoding antimicrobial lipopeptides and polyketides. Multiple horizontally acquired genes of possible importance for plant colonization were also found.

Bacillus paralicheniformis F47 was isolated from a salty lake in Ain Baida-Ouargla, southern Algeria. The genome contains genes for the production of several bioactive secondary metabolites, including the siderophore bacillibactin, the lipopeptides fengycin, surfactin, and lichenysin, the antibiotics bacitracin and kanosamine, and a putative circular bacteriocin.

The genome of Paenibacillus polymyxa M-1 consisted of a 5.8-Mb chromosome and a 360-kb plasmid. Nine sites were dedicated to nonribosomal synthesis of lipopeptides and polyketides. Eight of them were located at the chromosome, while one gene cluster predicted to encode an unknown secondary metabolite was present on the plasmid.

To extend prior studies implicating treponemal lipoproteins as major proinflammatory agonists of syphilitic infection, we examined the responses induced by intradermal injection of human subjects with synthetic lipoprotein analogues (lipopeptides) corresponding to the N termini of the 17- and 47-kDa lipoproteins of Treponema pallidum. Responses were assessed visually and by flow cytometric anal...