7-O-Malonyl Macrolactin A, a New Macrolactin Antibiotic from Bacillus subtilis Active against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci, and a Small-Colony Variant of Burkholderia cepacia
Abstract
7- O -Malonyl Macrolactin A, a New Macrolactin Antibiotic from Bacillus subtilis Active against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus , Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci, and a Small-Colony Variant of Burkholderia cepacia Magally Romero-Tabarez 1 , Rolf Jansen 1 , Marita Sylla 1 , Heinrich Lünsdorf 1 , Susanne Häußler 2 , Dwi A. Santosa 3 , 4 , Kenneth N. Timmis 1 and Gabriella Molinari 1 , * 1 Division of Microbiology 2 Cell Biology, German Research Centre for Biotechnology, Braunschweig, Germany 3 Department of Soil Science and Land Resource, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University 4 Indonesian Center for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, Bogor, Indonesia ABSTRACT We report here the discovery, isolation, and chemical and preliminary biological characterization of a new antibiotic compound, 7- O -malonyl macrolactin A (MMA), produced by a Bacillus subtilis soil isolate. MMA is a bacteriostatic antibiotic that inhibits a number of multidrug-resistant gram-positive bacterial pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and a small-colony variant of Burkholderia cepacia . MMA-treated staphylococci and enterococci were pseudomulticellular and exhibited multiple asymmetric initiation points of septum formation, indicating that MMA may inhibit a cell division function.