Bacteriocine (inklusive Lantibiotika): Antibakterielle Peptide von Bakterien im Kampf gegen die Verwandtschaft (mit Exkurs: Mycocine).

Bacteriocins are natural compounds with antibacterial activity. Many bacteria, especially lactobacilli, are able to produce such items, consisting of peptides or small proteins. A particular subset are the lantibiotics, which dispose of a unique aminoacid, namely lantionin. They bind to specific receptors on the surface of susceptible bacteria and act bactericidal by various pathways. Whereas some bacteriocins attack only closely related bacteria, others dispose of a larger spectrum. In consequence, they are able to eliminate concurrent bacteria in the same ecologic niche. Hence, they exert a regulatory role in mixed bacterial populations, for example in the gut or on the skin, and they have an antibiotic effect. Hopefully, in the future one can profit from their antibacterial activity by preventing the colonisation of pathogenic and multiresistant bacteria. The food industry already uses some of these bacteriocins for the biopreservation of foodstuffs by eliminating undesired species. Nisin and pediocin are actually the most important ones. Fungi, too, produce antimicrobial substances, called mycocins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]