Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1298-1304, Vol. 66, No. 4
Department of
Microbiology1 and Department of
Biochemistry,2 University of Stellenbosch,
Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa, and Federal Research
Centre for Nutrition, Institute of Hygiene and Toxicology, D-76131
Karlsruhe, Germany3
Received 7 October 1999/Accepted 17 December 1999
The pH-neutral cell supernatant of Enterococcus
faecalis BFE 1071, isolated from the feces of minipigs in
Göttingen, inhibited the growth of Enterococcus spp.
and a few other gram-positive bacteria. Ammonium sulfate precipitation
and cation-exchange chromatography of the cell supernatant, followed by
mass spectrometry analysis, yielded two bacteriocin-like peptides of
similar molecular mass: enterocin 1071A (4.285 kDa) and enterocin 1071B
(3.899 kDa). Both peptides are always isolated together. The peptides
are heat resistant (100°C, 60 min; 50% of activity remained after 15 min at 121°C), remain active after 30 min of incubation at pH 3 to
12, and are sensitive to treatment with proteolytic enzymes. Curing
experiments indicated that the genes encoding enterocins 1071A and
1071B are located on a 50-kbp plasmid (pEF1071). Conjugation of plasmid pEF1071 to E. faecalis strains FA2-2 and OGX1 resulted in
the expression of two active peptides with sizes identical to those of
enterocins 1071A and 1071B. Sequencing of a DNA insert of 9 to 10 kbp
revealed two open reading frames, ent1071A and
ent1071B, which coded for 39- and 34-amino-acid peptides,
respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence of the mature Ent1071A
and Ent1071B peptides showed 64 and 61% homology with the
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Characterization and Cloning of the Genes Encoding
Enterocin 1071A and Enterocin 1071B, Two Antimicrobial Peptides
Produced by Enterococcus faecalis BFE 1071
and
peptides of lactococcin G, respectively. This is the first report of
two new antimicrobial peptides representative of a fourth type of E. faecalis bacteriocin.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch 7600, South
Africa. Phone: 27-21-808 4536. Fax: 27-21-808 3611. E-mail:
lmtd{at}maties.sun.ac.za.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»