PMID: 15361862 , Related PDB id: 1UZT

Authors:

Hsu ST, Breukink E, Tischenko E, Lutters MA, de Kruijff B, Kaptein R, Bonvin AM, van Nuland NA

Title:

The nisin-lipid II complex reveals a pyrophosphate cage that provides a blueprint for novel antibiotics.

Journal:

Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2004 Oct;11(10):963-7. Epub 2004 Sep 12.

Abstract:

The emerging antibiotics-resistance problem has underlined the urgent need for novel antimicrobial agents. Lantibiotics (lanthionine-containing antibiotics) are promising candidates to alleviate this problem. Nisin, a member of this family, has a unique pore-forming activity against bacteria. It binds to lipid II, the essential precursor of cell wall synthesis. As a result, the membrane permeabilization activity of nisin is increased by three orders of magnitude. Here we report the solution structure of the complex of nisin and lipid II. The structure shows a novel lipid II-binding motif in which the pyrophosphate moiety of lipid II is primarily coordinated by the N-terminal backbone amides of nisin via intermolecular hydrogen bonds. This cage structure provides a rationale for the conservation of the lanthionine rings among several lipid II-binding lantibiotics. The structure of the pyrophosphate cage offers a template for structure-based design of novel antibiotics.