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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2001, p. 15-21, Vol. 67, No. 1
Department of Oral Biology, School of
Dentistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
35294
Received 14 June 2000/Accepted 5 October 2000
Strains of Streptococcus mutans produce at least three
mutacins, I, II, and III. Mutacin II is a member of subgroup AII in the
lantibiotic family of bacteriocins, and mutacins I and III belong to
subgroup AI in the lantibiotic family. In this report, we characterize
two mutacins produced by UA140, a group I strain of S. mutans. One is identical to the lantibiotic mutacin I produced by
strain CH43 (F. Qi et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66:3221-3229, 2000); the other is a nonlantibiotic bacteriocin, which we named mutacin IV. Mutacin IV belongs to the two-peptide, nonlantibiotic family of bacteriocins produced by gram-positive bacteria. Peptide A,
encoded by gene nlmA, is 44 amino acids (aa) in size and
has a molecular mass of 4,169 Da; peptide B, encoded by
nlmB, is 49 aa in size and has a molecular mass of 4,826 Da. Both peptides derive from prepeptides with glycines at positions
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.1.15-21.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
The Group I Strain of Streptococcus
mutans, UA140, Produces Both the Lantibiotic Mutacin I and a
Nonlantibiotic Bacteriocin, Mutacin IV
2 and
1 relative to the processing site. Production of mutacins I
and IV by UA140 appears to be regulated by different mechanisms under
different physiological conditions. The significance of producing two
mutacins by one strain under different conditions and the implication
of this property in terms of the ecology of S. mutans in
the oral cavity are discussed.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294. Phone: (205) 934-2328. Fax: (205) 975-6773. E-mail: fqi{at}mail.dental.uab.edu.
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