BACKGROUND Biosurfactants are a structurally diverse group of secondary metabolites with lots of potential to serve mankind. Depending upon the structure and composition they may exhibit properties that make them suitable for a particular application. Structural and compositional diversity of biosurfactant is unambiguously substrate dependent. The present study investigates the qualitative and ...

Lipopeptide biosurfactants produced by Bacillus sp. were assessed regarding their antimicrobial activity against foodborne pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms. Both Gram-positive Gram-negative bacteria found not to be susceptible these lipopeptides. However, mycosubtilin mycosubtilin/surfactin mixtures very active the filamentous fungi Paecilomyces variotti Byssochlamys fulva , with min...

The Bacillus sonorensis L12 draft genome sequence is approximately 4,647,754 bp in size with a G+C content of 45.2%. Over 86% of the genome contains protein-encoding genes, including several gene clusters for de novo biosynthesis of the nonribosomal lipopeptides iturin, bacitracin, and fengycin, which could mean that the strain exhibits antifungal effects.

The self-assembly of several classes of amphiphilic peptides is reviewed, and selected applications are discussed. We discuss recent work on the self-assembly of lipopeptides, surfactant-like peptides and amyloid peptides derived from the amyloid-β peptide. The influence of environmental variables such as pH and temperature on aggregate nanostructure is discussed. Enzyme-induced remodelling due...

Cyclic lipopeptides are produced by a soil Bacillus megaterium strain and several other Bacillus species. In this work, they are detected both in the Bacillus intact cells and the cells culture medium by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The cyclic lipopeptides self-assemble in water media producing negatively charged and large aggregates (300-800 nm of mean hydrodynamic radius) as evaluated by dyna...

Lipid-conjugated peptides have advanced the understanding of membrane protein functions and the roles of lipids in the membrane milieu. These lipopeptides modulate various biological systems such as viral fusion. A single function has been suggested for the lipid, binding to the membrane and thus elevating the local concentration of the peptide at the target site. In the present paper, we chall...

As antibiotic resistance continues to increase among Gram-negative organisms such as Acinetobacter baumannii there is a growing need for novel therapies to overcome these resistance mechanisms. Antibiotics active against multidrug-resistant A. baumannii (MDRAB) are few, and agents in development are primarily active against other multidrug-resistant Gram-negative organisms. The combinations of ...

The structures of the two fengycins, lipopeptides from Bacillus subtilis, were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and chemical degradation. They show a close structural relationship to the plipastatins from Bacillus cereus differing only in the stereochemistry of the Tyr residues.

A review of the chemical structure, pharmacokinetics, spectrum of activity, clinical use, and adverse effects of oxazolidinones (linezolid), glycopeptides, and cyclic lipopeptides (daptomycin) is presented. Oxazolidinones inhibit protein synthesis, and glycopeptides and cyclic lipopeptides act against the bacterial cell wall. The antibacterial spectrum of these agents covers gram-positive patho...

The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is a major medical concern, prompting increased interest in the development of novel antimicrobial compounds. One such set of naturally occurring compounds, known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), have broad-spectrum activity, but come with many limitations for clinical use. Recent work has resulted in a set of antimicrobial lipopeptides (AMLPs) ...