divercin-v41 and 4-vinylpyridine

Divercin V41 is a new bacteriocin produced by Carnobacterium divergens V41, a lactic acid bacterium isolated from fish viscera. The amino acid sequence of divercin V41 showed high homologies with pediocin PA-1 and enterocin A. Two disulphide bonds were present in the hydrophilic N-terminal domain and in the highly variable hydrophobic C-terminal domain, respectively. A DNA probe designed from the N-terminal sequence of the purified peptide was used to locate the structural gene of divercin V41. A 6 kb chromosomal fragment containing the divercin V41 structural gene (dvnA) was cloned and sequenced. The results indicate that divercin V41 is synthesized as a pre-bacteriocin of 66 amino acids. The 23-residue N-terminal extension is cleaved off to yield the mature 43-amino-acid divercin V41. In addition, the fragment encodes putative proteins commonly found within bacteriocin operons, including an ATP-dependent transporter, two immunity-like proteins and the two components of a lantibiotic-type signal-transducing system. The genetic organization of the fragment suggested important gene rearrangements.

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Aspartic Acid; Bacterial Proteins; Bacteriocins; Cloning, Molecular; Cysteine; Disulfides; Endopeptidases; Genomic Library; Lactobacillaceae; Mass Spectrometry; Metalloendopeptidases; Molecular Sequence Data; Molecular Weight; Open Reading Frames; Peptides; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Pyridines; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis