ABSTRACT
Lipopeptides are microbial surface-active compounds produced by bacteria, yeast and fungi. The characteristic properties of lipopeptides are due to their high structural diversity. The potential of pore formation and subsequent destabilization of the biological membrane permits their use as a potent antimicrobial, antitumor and hemolytic agent and promotes their use in the pharmaceutical, biomedical and agriculture fields. Lipopeptides with pore-forming properties can be categorized as calcium-dependent antibiotics (CDAs). CDAs are known to act upon the bacterial membrane wherein the formation of an oligomer of the drug molecule is supposed to induce perturbation in the membrane. Lipopeptide antibiotics comprise a family of antibacterial drugs which shows dynamic activity against various multidrug-resistant bacteria. In the series of lipopeptides-based antibiotics, amphomycin was the first member of the series. This was followed by the identification of tsushimycin and the other antibiotics which belong to the same group.
