Piperazic acid containing peptides produced by an endophytic Streptomyces sp. isolated from the medicinal plant Atropa belladonna

The culture broth of endophytic Streptomyces sp. AB100, isolated from the shoots of medicinal plant Atropa belladonna (L.) was investigated for the presence of antibacterial compounds. After initial testing followed by bioactivity-guided fractionation, six new piperazic acid (PA)-containing congeners of two known peptides, JBIR-39 and JBIR-40, were identified by HR-MS/MS and NMR analyses. Only the dehydroxylated hexapeptidic derivatives with unusual incorporation of four PA moieties exhibited weak antibacterial activity against Gram-positive test organism Bacillus subtilis. A 16S rDNA-based phylogenetic tree of known Streptomyces spp. producing PA-containing hexapeptides isolated from different habitats and endophyte Streptomyces AB100 showed considerable diversity, suggesting that these metabolites may play an important environmental role beyond their antibacterial activity.