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Background: Bacteriocins are peptide-derived molecules produced by bacteria, whose recently-discovered functions include virulence factors and signaling molecules as well as their better known roles as antibiotics. To date, close to five hundred bacteriocins have been identified and classified. Recent discoveries have shown that bacteriocins are highly diverse and widely distributed among bacterial species. Given the heterogeneity of bacteriocin compounds, many tools struggle with identifying novel bacteriocins due to their vast sequence and structural diversity. Many bacteriocins undergo post-translational processing or modifications necessary for the biosynthesis of the final mature form. Enzymatic modification of bacteriocins as well as their export is achieved by proteins whose genes are often located in a discrete gene cluster proximal to the bacteriocin precursor gene, referred to as context genes in this study. Although bacteriocins themselves are structurally diverse, context genes have been shown to be largely conserved across unrelated species. Methods: Using this knowledge, we set out to identify new candidates for context genes which may clarify how bacteriocins are synthesized, and identify new candidates for bacteriocins that bear no sequence similarity to known toxins. To achieve these goals, we have developed a software tool, Bacteriocin Operon and gene block Associator (BOA) that can identify homologous bacteriocin associated gene blocks and predict novel ones. BOA generates profile Hidden Markov Models from the clusters of bacteriocin context genes, and uses them to identify novel bacteriocin gene blocks and operons. Results and conclusions: We provide a novel dataset of predicted bacteriocins and context genes. We also discover that several phyla have a strong preference for bacteriocin genes, suggesting distinct functions for this group of molecules. Software Availability: https://github.com/idoerg/BOA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of ribosomally produced bacterial peptides and their various roles in bacterial lifestyles including future prospects and latest computational and bioinformatic approaches to decode the overall language of the bacterially produced peptides. Topics discussed include a reference to the ribosomally produced bacterial peptides as a class of compounds encompassing an extraordinary amount of chemical, structural and functional diversity.

The cluster of virulence sensor (CovS)/responder (CovR) two-component operon (CovRS) regulates ∼15% of the genes of the Group A Streptococcal pyogenes (GAS) genome. Bacterial clones containing inactivating mutations in the covS gene have been isolated from patients with virulent invasive diseases. We report herein an assessment of the nature and types of covS mutations that can occur in both virulent and nonvirulent GAS strains, and assess whether a nonvirulent GAS can attain enhanced virulence through this mechanism. A group of mice were infected with a globally-disseminated clonal M1T1 GAS (isolate 5448), containing wild-type (WT) CovRS (5448/CovR+S+), or less virulent engineered GAS strains, AP53/CovR+S+ and Manfredo M5/CovR+S+. SpeB negative GAS clones from wound sites and/or from bacteria disseminated to the spleen were isolated and the covS gene was subjected to DNA sequence analysis. Numerous examples of inactivating mutations were found in CovS in all regions of the gene. The mutations found included frame-shift insertions and deletions, and in-frame small and large deletions in the gene. Many of the mutations found resulted in early translation termination of CovS. Thus, the covS gene is a genomic mutagenic target that gives GAS enhanced virulence. In cases wherein CovS− was discovered, these clonal variants exhibited high lethality, further suggesting that randomly mutated covS genes occur during the course of infection, and lead to the development of a more invasive infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]