Gram-negative phytopathogens cause significant losses in a diverse range of economically important crop plants. The effectiveness of traditional countermeasures, such as the breeding and introduction of resistant cultivars, is often limited by the dearth of available sources of genetic resistance. An alternative strategy to reduce loss to specific bacterial phytopathogens is to use narrow-spect...

Background and Objective: Lactobacilli are known for their probiotic activities and potential to combat pathogens. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus strains isolated from various sources against pathogenic bacteria, with the objective of identifying potential bacteriocin producers. Methods: A total of 140 samples were collected from different sources. ...

The natural variation in the susceptibilities of gram-positive bacteria towards the bacteriocins nisin and pediocin PA-1 is considerable. This study addresses the factors associated with this variability for closely related lactic acid bacteria. We compared two sets of nonbacteriocinogenic strains for which the MICs of nisin and pediocin PA-1 differed 100- to 1,000-fold: Lactobacillus sake DSM2...

The continuing emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogens has sparked an interest in seeking alternative therapeutic options. Antimicrobial combinatorial therapy is one such avenue. A number of studies have been conducted, involving combinations of bacteriocins with other antimicrobials, to circumvent the development of antimicrobial resistance and/or increase antimicrobial potency. Such bacte...

Introduction Lactococcus is a genus of lactic acid bacteria used in the dairy industry as starter. Lactococci have been found to produce altogether more than 40 different bacteriocins, ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial proteins. All known spp. bacteriocins belong classes I and II, which are mainly heat-resistant peptides. No class III bigger heat-sensitive proteins, including phage tail-lik...

Lectin-like bacteriocins consist of tandem monocot mannose-binding domains and display a genus-specific killing activity. Here we show that pyocin L1, a novel member of this family from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, targets susceptible strains of this species through recognition of the common polysaccharide antigen (CPA) of P. aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide that is predominantly a homopolymer of D-rha...

Microbes produce an extraordinary array of microbial defense systems. These include classical antibiotics, metabolic by-products, lytic agents, numerous types of protein exotoxins, and bacteriocins. The abundance and diversity of this potent arsenal of weapons are clear. Less clear are their evolutionary origins and the role they play in mediating microbial interactions. The goal of this review...

Class I bacteriocins (lantibiotics) and class II bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides secreted by gram-positive bacteria. Using two lantibiotics, lacticin 481 and nisin, and the class II bacteriocin coagulin, we showed that bacteriocins can be detected without any purification from whole producer bacteria grown on plates by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spec...