ABSTRACT
Lantibiotics constitute a group of bacteriocin-like antimicrobial peptides exclusively produced by, and mainly active against, gram-positive bacteria. The unique structural feature of lantibiotics is the presence of the amino acids lanthionine and βmethyllanthionine, which form characteristic intrachain ring structures (1). In contrast to classical peptide antibiotics such as gramicidin S or valinomycin, which result from the activity of multienzyme complexes (2-4), lantibiotics arise from ribosomally synthesized precursor peptides by posttranslational modifications. On the basis of their structures, lantibiotics are currently divided into two major groups: the elongated amphiphilic type A lantibiotics with pore-forming activity and the globular, enzyme-inhibitory type B lantibiotics (5).
