Title

Antimicrobial peptide produced by marine sponge-derived Bacillus subtilis Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an antimicrobial peptide having potent antibacterial activity against a range of bacteria, a nucleic acid encoding the antimicrobial peptide, a strain of Bacillus subtilis bacteria capable of expressing the antimicrobial peptide, an immunity protein conferring resistance to the antimicrobial effects of the antimicrobial peptide and a nucleic acid encoding the cognate immunity protein, and recombinant bacteria transformed with a nucleic acid encoding the antimicrobial peptide and/or a nucleic acid encoding the cognate immunity protein.

Background to the Invention

The quest for novel antimicrobial compounds from the marine environment has been driven by a widespread resistance to antibiotics and emerging multi-drug resistant pathogens. The large majority of the antimicrobials currently used in clinical therapy are, or are derived from, natural products of microbial origin. While antimicrobials have been traditionally isolated from soil-dwelling microorganisms, the number of bioactive metabolites isolated from marine organisms, and in particular from marine sponges, has increased dramatically in recent years.

Marine sponges (Porifera) are simple multicellular, sessile filter feeding invertebrates, which have been in existence for 700-800 million years. They house a dense and diverse microbial population, which is believed to contribute to their unmatched prolific production of bioactive metabolites. These bioactives are thought to play an important protective role against pathogens which might enter the sponge habitat. Bacillus species appear to be part of the microbiota of many marine sponges, although their diversity, properties and specific ecological contribution still remain poorly understood (Phelan et al., 2012).

Bacillus are rod shaped endospore-forming bacteria renowned for their ability to produce a wide variety of bioactive compounds (Stein, 2005, Westers et al., 2004). The production of antimicrobials coupled with the development of environmentally highly resistant endospores, facilitates their survival in competitive ecological niches such as that which they are likely to encounter within sponges. B. subtilis is the best characterised member of the genus, and has for many years been used as a model organism to study cell differentiation in Gram-positive bacteria. Although B. subtilis was initially described as a soil dwelling bacterium, numerous reports suggest that this species can be isolated from, and can grow, sporulate and germinate in, many different ecological niches (Barbosa et al., 2004, Barbosa et al., 2005, Phelan et al., 2012). B. subtlis isolates produce a vast array of chemically different antimicrobial peptides, which include non-ribosomally synthesised peptides, such as polymyxins and the lipopetide surfactin, gene encoded bacteriocins, such as subtilosin and, within this latter group, lantibiotics, such as subtilin. This chemical diversity contrasts with that found for the antimicrobial peptides produced by LAB, which are usually limited to bacteriocins. These antimicrobial peptides are part of the chemical arsenal of many microbes against other microorganisms in nutrient competitive environments or as communicating molecules between different microbial cells.

Lantibiotics are ribosomally synthesised post-translationally modified antimicrobial peptides typically produced by Gram-positive bacteria. Lantipeptides, i.e. the name used to describe lantibiotics and related peptides which lack antimicrobial activity, are currently classified into four classes (I to IV) according to the biosynthetic pathway involved in their production. While dedicated dehydratase (LanB) and cyclase enzymes (LanC) are involved in the modification of class I lantibiotics, for the other three classes this is mediated by a single multifunctional enzyme. The bio-conversion from a linear lantibiotic precursor, with an N-terminal leader peptide and a C-terminal core peptide, to the mature active molecule involves different post-translational modification events of the C-terminal portion, such as the enzymatic conversion of serine and threonine residues into the dehydrated amino acids dehydroalanine (Dha) and dehydroamino-2-butyric acid (Dhb), respectively. When one of these modified amino acids interacts with an intrapeptide cysteine, a thioether bond is formed generating mesolanthionine (Lan) or (2S,3S,6R)-3-methyllanthionine (MeLan) (Cotter et al., 2005a). Besides these, other less common modifications have also been described (Willey and van der Donk, 2007). The post translational modifications appear to influence not only the structure of the peptides, but also their activity and stability against protease degradation and heat denaturation. For class I lantibiotics, the mature peptide is then translocated through the membrane generally by a transmembrane ATP- binding cassette (ABC) transporter (LanT). This can happen before or after cleavage of the leader peptide from the modified core peptide, which is frequently mediated by a dedicated serine protease LanP (Willey and van der Donk, 2007). Multiple roles have been attributed to the leader peptide, which include roles in the post-translational modification events, translocation and immunity. Importantly the peptide only becomes active after removal of the leader peptide. Dedicated immunity proteins (Lanl) and/or specialised ABC transporter proteins (LanFE(G)) protect the host from the action of its own lantibiotic. Immunity proteins are thought to be associated with the cell membrane and are heterogeneous in structure, composition and size. All of the genes involved in the processing, transport, immunity and regulation are organised in genetic clusters, which are frequently composed of multiple transcriptional units.

Antimicrobial activity of lantibiotics was initially thought to be limited towards Gram- positive bacteria (Cotter et al., 2005a). However, more recently, as a consequence of the identification of peptides such as microbisporicin, this activity has been extended to Gram-negative bacteria. While the mode of action of most lantibiotics is thought to involve inhibition of peptidoglycan biosynthesis through their interaction with specific molecular targets, such as the cell wall precursor lipid II, many will additionally cause pore formation in the cytoplasmic membrane and ultimately, result in cell death (Willey and van der Donk, 2007). An attractive observation associated with the potential use of lantibiotics as therapeutic drugs is that, to date, the development of microbial resistance to these peptides appears to be relatively less common than is resistance to classical antibiotics (Cotter et al., 2005a).

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce some of the best characterised lantibiotics, including nisin, which remains the only bacteriocin approved for use as a preservative in the food industry (Cotter et al., 2005b). Bacillus lantibiotics, despite their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, have attracted less attention regarding their potential applicability in food, agricultural and clinical fields. Endospore-forming bacteria, particularly Bacillus, are known to play an important role in the preparation of Asian fermented foods and are currently being used as spore probiotic preparations in human therapy, animal production and aquaculture. In this regard, the production of antimicrobial compounds, such as lantibiotics, is regarded as a highly desirable property if candidate strains are to be used as probiotics and/or starter cultures.

Summary of the Invention

According to the invention, there is provided an isolated peptide, ideally a lantibiotic peptide, having potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes and an N-terminal sequence comprising a peptide of SEQUENCE ID NO: 19 or a functional variant thereof comprising an N-terminal sequence having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 19.

Dhb*-W-A-Dhb-I-G-K-Dhb-I-V-Q-Dha-V-K-K (SEQUENCE ID NO: 19)

(Dhb* means that the Dhb residue is optionally deaminated)

The invention also relates to an isolated lantibiotic peptide having potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes and which is converted from a linear lantibiotic precursor comprising a peptide of SEQUENCE ID NO: 24 or a variant thereof having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 24.

T-W-A-T-I-G-K-T-I-V-Q-S-V-K-K (SEQUENCE ID NO: 24)

In the specification, the term "precursor" should be understood to include uncleaved sequences comprising or having a leader peptide and core peptide (for example, SEQUENCE ID NO: 29 or variants thereof) or a sequence in which a core peptide has been cleaved from a leader peptide (for example, SEQUENCE ID NO: 25 or variants thereof). Preferably, the core peptide cleaved from the leader peptide comprises a peptide having an N-terminal sequence of SEQUENCE ID NO: 24 (or variants thereof). MEKNNIFDLDINKKMESTSEVSAQTWATIGKTIVQSVKKCRTFTCGCSLGSCSN CN (SEQUENCE ID NO: 29) The invention also provides an isolated lantibiotic peptide having potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes, the peptide being characterised in that it is obtainable from a marine sponge-derived B. subtilis strain, especially marine sponge-derived B- subtilis strain MMA7, and has a molecular weight of 3-5KDa as determined by MALDO TOF MS analysis.

The invention also provides an isolated lantibiotic peptide having potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes, the peptide being characterised in that it is obtainable from a marine sponge-derived B. subtilis strain, especially as Haliclona simulans marine sponge-derived B- subtilis strain, and has a molecular weight of 3-5KDa as determined by MALDO TOF MS analysis.

The invention also provides an isolated lantibiotic peptide having potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes, the peptide being characterised in that it is obtainable from a Haliclona simulans marine sponge-derived B- subtilis strain MMA7, and has a molecular weight of 3-5KDa as determined by MALDO TOF MS analysis.

In one embodiment, the isolated lantibiotic of the invention comprises or consists essentially of, or is converted from, a peptide of SEQ ID NO: 22, or a functional variant thereof having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO: 22.

Dhb*-W-A-Dhb-I-G-K-Dhb-I-V-Q-Dha-V-K-K-C-R-Dhb-F-Dhb-C-G- C-Dha-L-G- Dha-C-Dha-N-C-N (SEQ ID NO: 22)

(Dhb* means that the Dhb residue is optionally deaminated)

The lantibiotic peptides of the invention, for example those comprising or converted from peptides of SEQUENCE ID NO'S 19 or 22, typically include one or more thioether bridges, for example, two, three, four or five thioether bridges, each of which is independently selected from Lan or MeLan. Thus, the invention also relates to an isolated lantibiotic peptide that is derived from a peptide of the invention, for example a peptide comprising a sequence of SEQUENCE ID NO: 19, 22 or 24, and which includes one or more Lan or MeLan thioeteher bridges. Ideally, the lantibiotic peptide has a sequence and structure shown in Fig. 7A, including five thioether bridges (SEQUENCE ID NO: 43).

Typically, the lantibiotic peptide is further characterised in that it is derived from a linear lantibiotic precursor peptide comprising a peptide of SEQUENCE ID NO: 25 or a variant (or functional variant) thereof having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 25.

T-W-A-T-I-G-K-T-I-V-Q-S-V-K-K-C-R-T-F-T-C-G-C-S-L-G-S-C-S -N-C-N

(SEQUENCE ID NO: 25)

Ideally, the lantibiotic peptide of the invention has an antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes of at least 40μΜ, 30μΜ, 20μΜ, ΙΟμΜ, 9μΜ, 8μΜ, 7μΜ, 6μΜ, 5μΜ, 4μΜ, 3μΜ, 2μΜ, 1.9μΜ, 1.8μΜ, 1.7μΜ, 1.6μΜ, 1.5μΜ, 1.4μΜ, 1.3μΜ, 1.2μΜ, Ι.ΙμΜ, ΙμΜ, 0.9μΜ, 0.8μΜ, 0.7μΜ, 0.6μΜ, or 0.5μΜ.

The invention also relates to a linear lantibiotic precursor of a lantibiotic peptide of the invention. Typically, the linear lantibiotic precursor comprises an N-terminal sequence of SEQUENCE ID NO: 24 or a variant thereof having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 24. Suitably, the linear lantibiotic precursor comprises SEQUENCE ID NO: 25, or a variant thereof having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 25.

The invention also relates to a nucleic acid encoding the linear precursor of a lantibiotic peptide of the invention. An example of such a nucleic acid is provided in SEQUENCE ID NO: 23.

The invention also relates to an isolated cognate immunity protein comprising an polyamino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 26, or an isolated variant thereof having 90% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO: 26, wherein the isolated protein or variant thereof is capable of conferring immunity on a host strain, typically a Bacillus host strain, ideally a Bacillus subtilis host strain, to the antibacterial effects of the lantibiotic peptide of the invention. The invention also relates to a nucleic acid encoding an isolated cognate immunity protein of the invention, or a variant thereof.

The invention also relates to a recombinant vector comprising a nucleic acid of the invention.

The invention also relates to a host cell transformed by a recombinant vector of the invention (hereafter "host cell of the invention").

The invention also relates to an isolated lantibiotic peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof) for use as a medicament.

The invention also relates to an isolated lantibiotic peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof) for use as an antibacterial agent or an antibiotic, especially against human and fish-zoonotic pathogens.

The invention also relates to an antimicrobial peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof) for use in treating or preventing a disease or condition characterised by growth of Listeria or Staphylococcus aureus, especially methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRS A). Preferably, the disease or condition is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), for example, and in particular, hospital- acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA) infection, that is, an MRSA infection acquired in healthcare facilities such as a hospital.

The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an isolated lantibiotic peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof) in combination with a suitable pharmaceutical excipient.

The invention also relates to an antibacterial or antibiotic formulation comprising the isolated lantibiotic peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof). The invention also relates to an isolated strain of the invention, or a transformed host cell, of the invention, for use as a probiotic culture.

The invention also relates to an isolated lantibiotic peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof), for use as a biopreservative, for use in treating microbial infections and clinical infections, for use as a disinfectant, for use as an antibiotic in animal husbandry applications (for example, aquaculture environments), and for use in reducing the incidence of Aeromonas hydwphila and sensitive methicillin-resistant S. aureus in animals, especially humans and fish.

The invention also relates to a lantibiotic peptide of the invention (or a precursor thereof) in a form suitable for ingestion by aquatic animals, for example fish feed, suitably in a flake or pellet form. The invention also relates to a method for producing a lantibiotic peptide of the invention comprising a step of culturing a B. subtilis strain MMA7 derived from a marine sponge, especially a Haliclona simulans marine sponge, under conditions suitable for production of the lantibiotic peptide of the invention, and separating the lantibiotic peptide from the producing strain.

The invention also relates to the use of a B. subtilis strain derived from a marine sponge, especially a Haliclona simulans marine sponge, typically a B. subtilis strain MMA7 derived from a marine sponge, and ideally a B. subtilis strain MMA7 derived from a Haliclona simulans marine sponge, as an antibacterial agent in the treatment of human or fish-zoonotic pathogens. Typically, the strain is in the form of spores.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 illustrates antimicrobial activity of B. subtilis strain MMA7. (A) Growth of the wild type strain B. subtilis MMA7 (diamond) and the Asbo-albF::cat mutant strain TB2 (squares) in MB (top panel). Antimicrobial activity of strains MMA7 and TB2, tested on a colony overlay assay against B. cereus (Be), B. megaterium (Bm), A. hydrophila (Ah) and C. albicans (Ca) (bottom panel). (B) Kinetics of production of antimicrobial compounds by B. subtilis strain MMA7. Antimicrobial activity of concentrated cell-free supernatants from samples collected at different time points of the bacterial growth was tested on a well diffusion assay against the indicators B. cereus (Be) and L. monocytogenes (Lm). All experiments were repeated twice and representative results are shown. Figure 2 illustrates the purification of the B. subtilis strain MMA7 antimicrobial compound. A. Reverse phase-HPLC purification of the antimicrobial compound present in ammonium sulphate crude extracts (ASCE) from 12 h MB cultures. A single peak was eluted with an acetonitrile gradient after the injection of 1 ml ASCE (retention time, 24.070 min/46 acetonitrile). B. Bioautography of samples throughout the purification steps. Left panel, Tricine-SDS-PAGE gel stained with Coomassie Blue. Right panel, same as left panel but overlayed with the indicator C. sporogenes. Lane 1, cell free supernatant; lane 2, ammonium sulphate crude extract; lane 3, RP-HPLC purified bioactive fraction. Arrow head indicates the antimicrobial activity associated with the crude extract and the RP-HPLC purified fraction.

Figure 3 illustrates mass spectrometry analysis of RP-HPLC purified peptide showing a single compound with a low molecular mass, m/z = 3234.2 (A). The peptide shows a number of oxidised forms typical of the thio-ethers found in lantibiotics (B). Figure 4 illustrates a bacteriolytic effect of the purified peptide on L. monocytogenes. Bacterial cultures were grown in the absence (Control) or presence of cell free supernatant (CFS), ammonium sulphate crude extracts (ASCE), and the purified peptide (P), from 12 h MB cultures of strain TB2. Cells were exposed to test samples from the beginning of growth (TO, Top graph) or these were added 4 h after TO (arrow, Bottom graph).

Figure 5 illustrates the thermal, pH and proteolytic stability of the purified peptide. Bioactivity of the bioactive peptide samples treated in the different ways was assessed by a spot on lawn assay. 5 μΐ of treated/control samples were spotted onto BHI agar plates seeded with L. monocytogenes to an OD ₆ oo of 0.015. Samples treated with proteolytic enzymes (1 mg ml ^"1 final concentration) were tested as above and using a well assay as described above. Control samples containing the different enzymes and no peptide, had no detectable inhibitory effect on the indicator strain. ASCD, ammonium sulphate crude extract. All assays were repeated at least 3 times, and representative results are shown.

Figure 6 illustrates the structural organisation of the putative subtilomycin biosynthetic cluster and flanking regions. subA, subtilomycin structural gene; subP, serine protease; subB, lanthionine dehydratase; subC, lanthionine synthetase; subT, ABC transporter; ybdJ, two component response regulator; ybclK, sensor histidine kinase. The function of subl cannot be predicted from its sequence, although its genetic location and lack of homologues is consistent with a possible involvement in immunity. A comparison of the genomic location of the subtilomycin biosynthetic cluster in strain MMA7 with that of the skf operon in strain 168 is provided. Predicted promoters are indicated by arrows.

Figure 7 illustrates the comparison of the sequence homology between subtilomycin and nisin pro-petides and their respective closest homologue (A). Proposed conformational structure of the mature lantibiotic subtilomycin. Top, unmodified propeptide (SEQUENCE ID NO: 25). Bottom, mature peptide, where Ser and Thr residues which are posttranslationally dehydrated to Dha and Dhb, or involved in the formation of Lan and MeLan, respectively, with cysteine residues, are shaded in grey (SEQUENCE ID NO: 43). The location of the thioether bridges was estimated from the amino acid sequence and by comparison with that of paenibacillin (He et al., 2008). The presence of the N-terminal 2-oxobutyrate residue is also indicated (B). Comparison of the amino acid sequence of the N-terminal leader peptide (SEQUENCE ID NO: 28) and the C- terminal core peptide of subtilomycin (SEQUENCE ID NO: 25) (when combined together and uncleaved, comprises the full length protein provided by SEQUENCE ID NO: 29) and different class I lantibiotics (C). Sequences obtained from http://www.uniprot.org were aligned with ClustalX (Multiple Sequence Alignment version 2.0.11, Larkin et al. 2007) and sequence analysis processed with GeneDoc (Multiple sequence Alignment Editor & Shading Utility, Version 2.7.000, http://www.psc.edu/biomed/genedoc). Conserved amino acids are boxed in black and gaps are indicated by hyphen. +1, indicates the first amino acid of the pro-peptide. *, indicates the conserved motif of class I leader peptides documented to be important for efficient production.

Figure 8 illustrates the neighbour joining phylogenetic tree of gyrA gene sequences from different B. subtilis strains. Sponge-associated isolates are highlighted in bold. + and -, after strain designation, indicates the presence and absence of the subtilomycin structural gene, sub A.

Detailed Description of the Drawings

Broadly, the invention is based on the discovery of an antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin which is a lantibiotic peptide and has potent antibacterial activity against a broad spectrum of bacteria, including the pathogenic Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes strains. The amino acid sequence of Subtilomycin in mature/modified form is provided in SEQ ID NO: 23 - the structure of the molecule is shown in Fig. 7A, and include a number of Lan and MeLan modified amino acids. A source of Subtilomycin is a strain of Baciullus subtilis that was isolated from the marine sponge Haliclona simulans, designated Bacillus subtilis strain MMA7 (Phelan et al., 2012). The applicants have also discovered a protein expressed by Bacillus subtilis strain MMA7 that confers immunity on its host against the antibacterial effects of Subtilomycin. This protein, designed an "immunity protein" or "cognate immunity protein" has an amino acid sequence provided in SEQ ID NO: 26 and is encoded by the nucleotide sequence provided in SEQ ID NO: 27.

LIQAVLEITIKFLTELISFELPVYMYIWFAVLFIFSMIVENVQLAIAKDSILNSILK R LGIKILSLLVVLIIGVLGSNFFAQVVEDAVNKESNLAYYILSTTIATALTIIEPIIET MKKFIKEQSNLAFANFTVSVICLTVTFQAVSSIFSDYFILATPYKVVLIISSAIGIV YLVKFDQNNLEVNSESVHSNKND (SEQ ID NO: 26) ttgatacaagcagtactagaaatcactattaaatttctaacggaattaatctcttttgaa ttgccagtatatatgtatatttggttcgca gttcttttcatattttcaatgatagtcgaaaatgtacaattggcaatagctaaggatagt atattaaattctattttaaaaagattagga ataaaaattttaagtctattggtggtcttaattattggggttttaggatcaaactttttt gctcaggttgttgaagacgcagtcaataaa gaatctaacttagcttattatattctgtctactacaatagctacagcattgaccataatc gaaccaataattgagacgatgaaaaagt ttataaaagaacaatcaaatcttgcttttgcaaattttacagtcagtgttatttgtctta ctgtaacgtttcaagcagtctcaagcatctt tagtgattattttattttggccaccccttataaagtggtgttaataatttcatcagcaat tggtattgtatatttggtgaaattcgatcaaa ataatttagaagttaatagcgaaagtgttcattcaaataaaaatgattaa (SEQ ID NO: 27)

The term "lantibiotic peptide" as used herein should be understood to mean a polyamino acid sequence, typically of less than 100, 75 or 50 amino acids in length, and which comprises at least one cysteine bridge, typically formed between a dehydrated amino acids selected from dehydroalanine (Dha), dehydroamino-2-butyric acid (Dhb), or a- amino butyric acid (Abu), generating mesolanthionine (Lan) or (2S,3S,6R)-3- methyllanthionine (MeLan). The lantibiotic peptides of the invention comprise at least one, two, three, four, or five thioether bridges, each of which is independently a Lan or MeLan structure. Typically, the lantibiotic peptide of the invention comprises at least two thioether bridges, each of which is independently a Lan or MeLan structure. Suitably, the lantibiotic peptide of the invention comprises at least three thioether bridges, each of which is independently a Lan or MeLan structure. Preferably, the lantibiotic peptide of the invention comprises at least four thioether bridges, each of which is independently a Lan or MeLan structure. Ideally, the lantibiotic peptide of the invention comprises at least two thioether bridges, each of which is independently a Lan or MeLan structure.

The term "variants" as applied herein should be understood to mean peptides having at least 90% sequence identity with the respective reference sequence provided. Suitably, the variants consist of, or comprise, a sequence having at least 91 , 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99% sequence identity with the respective reference sequence. Thus, for example, the term should be taken to include proteins or polypeptides that are altered in respect of one or more amino acid residues, for example 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 amino acids. Preferably such alterations involve the insertion, addition, deletion and/or substitution of 5 or fewer amino acids, more preferably of 4 or fewer, even more preferably of 3 or fewer, most preferably of 1 or 2 amino acids only. Insertion, addition and substitution with natural and modified amino acids is envisaged. The variant may have conservative amino acid changes, wherein the amino acid being introduced is similar structurally, chemically, or functionally to that being substituted. The term sequence identity comprises both sequence identity and similarity, i.e. a polypeptide sequence that shares 90% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 24 is one in which any 90% of aligned residues are either identical to, or conservative substitutions of, the corresponding residues in SEQ ID NO: 24. The term "variant" is also intended to include chemical derivatives of the respective reference peptide, i.e. where one or more residues of the respective reference peptide is chemically derivatized by reaction of a functional side group. Also included within the term 'variant' are molecules in which naturally occurring amino acid residues are replaced with amino acid analogues. Details of amino acid analogues will be well known to those skilled in the art. The variant peptide may be a lantibiotic peptide comprising Lan or Melan structures.

The term "functional variant" as applied to as applied herein should be understood to mean variant peptides comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity with a reference sequence and having potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes. In one embodiment, the functional variant is an isolated lantibiotic peptide comprising an N-terminal sequence having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 19. In another embodiment, the functional variant is an isolated lantibiotic peptide comprising a sequence having at least 90% sequence identity with SEQUENCE ID NO: 22. The peptide will generally have less than 100 residues, 60 residues, 50 residues, 40 residues, 30 residues or 25 residues.. Suitably, the functional variant consist of, or comprise, a sequence having at least 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99% sequence identity with the reference peptide . Functional variants shall preferably be taken to mean peptides having amino acid sequences which are substantially identical to reference peptides. Thus, for example, the term should be taken to include proteins or polypeptides that are altered in respect of one or more amino acid residues, for example 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 amino acids. Preferably such alterations involve the insertion, addition, deletion and/or substitution of 5 or fewer amino acids, more preferably of 4 or fewer, even more preferably of 3 or fewer, most preferably of 1 or 2 amino acids only. Insertion, addition and substitution with natural and modified amino acids is envisaged. The variant may have conservative amino acid changes, wherein the amino acid being introduced is similar structurally, chemically, or functionally to that being substituted. Typically, functional variant peptides of the invention, for example functional variants of Subtilomycin peptides of the invention which have been altered by substitution or deletion of residues that are critical to its antibacterial activity will be excluded from the term "variant". The term sequence identity comprises both sequence identity and similarity, i.e. a polypeptide sequence that shares 90% amino acid identity with SEQ ID NO: 22 is one in which any 90% of aligned residues are either identical to, or conservative substitutions of, the corresponding residues in SEQ ID NO: 22. The term "variant" is also intended to include chemical derivatives of Subtilomycin peptide, i.e. where one or more residues of Subtilomycin is chemically derivatized by reaction of a functional side group. Also included within the term 'variant' are Subtilomycin molecules in which naturally occurring amino acid residues are replaced with amino acid analogues. Details of amino acid analogues will be well known to those skilled in the art. The lantibiotic peptide of the invention comprises thioether bridges, example of which are illustrated in Fig. 7A. It will be appreciated that the lantibiotic peptides of the invention are not limited to the molecule shown in Fig. 7A, but include variants of this molecule having one or more thioether bridges formed between different amino acids in the molecule. In this specification, the term "Dha" should be understood to mean dehydroalanine, the term "Dhb" should be understood to mean dehydroamino-2-butyric acid, the term "Dhb*" should be understood to mean dehydroamino-2-butyric acid in a deaminated form, and the term "Abu" should be understood to mean a-amino butyric acid.

Proteins and polypeptides (including variants and fragments thereof) of and for use in the invention may be generated wholly or partly by chemical synthesis or by expression from nucleic acid. The proteins and peptides of and for use in the present invention can be readily prepared according to well-established, standard liquid or, preferably, solid- phase peptide synthesis methods known in the art (see, for example, J. M. Stewart and J. D. Young, Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis, 2nd edition, Pierce Chemical Company, Rockford, Illinois (1984), in M. Bodanzsky and A. Bodanzsky, The Practice of Peptide Synthesis, Springer Verlag, New York (1984)).

The invention also relates to an isolated cognate immunity protein of the invention. This term should be understood to mean a protein of SEQ ID NO: 26, or an isolated variant thereof having 90% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO: 26, wherein the isolated protein or variant thereof is capable of conferring immunity on a host strain, typically a Bacillus host strain, ideally a Bacillus subtilis host strain, to the antibacterial effects of the lantibiotic peptide of the invention. Thus, a bacteria which expresses an immunity protein of the invention will be immune to the antibacterial effects of the lantibiotic peptide of the invention, or will have increased immunity compared to a bacteria which does not express the immunity protein of the invention. Suitably, the variants comprise a sequence having at least 90%, 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98% or 99% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO: 26.

The invention also relates to a recombinant vector comprising a nucleic acid encoding a lantibiotic peptide of the invention, a nucleic acid encoding a cognate immunity protein of the invention, or one or more nucleic acids encoding a lantibiotic peptide and a cognate immunity protein of the invention. The nucleic acids may be cloned as separate entities (i.e. distinct nucleic acid constructs), or in a same construct, under distinct promoter regions or in a single operon. Typically, the nucleic acids are cloned into a recombinant vector (for example, a plasmid) which is capable of replicating in the host bacteria. Typical plasmids contain, in addition to the cloned insert, a selection gene (i.e. antibiotic resistance, a dye etc.) and an origin of replication effective in the host bacterium. The plasmid may also comprise regulatory sequences, for example promoters, terminators and/or enhancers. Examples of such vectors are pNZ44 (McGrath S, Fitzgerald GF, van Sinderen D (2001) Improvement and optimization of two engineered phage resistance mechanisms in Lactococcus lactis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67 (2): 608-616)) and pCI372 (Hayes F, Daly C, Fitzgerald GF (1990) Identification of the Minimal Replicon of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis UC317 Plasmid pCI305. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 56: 202-209)). However, any recombinant vector suitable for replicating in a host bacteria known to the person skilled in the art may be used. The nucleic acid may also be cloned into an integrative cassette suitable for integration into the genome of suitable host bacteria. Such an integrative cassette typically comprises a nucleic acid encoding an antimicrobial peptide of the invention or a cognate immunity protein of the invention, or both, linked to (or flanked by) one or several sequences allowing integration, preferably site-specific integration. Such sequences may be for instance nucleic acid sequences homologous to a targeted region of the genome, allowing integration through crossing over. Various techniques can be used to insert a nucleic acid into a host bacteria, for example through natural transformation or electroporation.

The host bacteria suitable for cloning the lantibiotic peptide and/or the cognate immunity protein may be selected from any host bacteria known to a person skilled in the art such as, for example, Lactococcus, Lactobacillus and Enterococcus.

In the specification, the term "potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes" as applied to the isolated lantibiotic peptides of the invention should be understood to mean the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) required to completely inhibit the growth of L. monocytogenes and C. spowgenes. In this specification, the term "antimicrobial activity of about 1.2 μΜ against Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium spowgenes" as applied to the isolated lantibiotic peptides of the invention should be understood to mean that a concentration of isolated lantibiotic peptides of about 1.2 μΜ is sufficient to inhibit the growth of bacterial cells following addition of purified peptide to actively growing cells. This concentration is believed to be the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) required to completely inhibit the growth of L. monocytogenes and C. spowgenes. Nisin has an MIC of 3.75 μΜ against L. monocytogenes. Subtilomycin has an MIC of about 1.2 μΜ towards L. monocytogenes. The assay used: A stock sample of purified peptide was diluted in a two-fold serial dilution. 10 μΐ aliquots of each dilution were applied to agar plates seeded with L. monocytogenes at an optical density (600 nm) of 0.015. Plates were incubated at 37°C and examined 6 hours post incubation and again at 20 hours post incubation. The minimum inhibitory concentration was determined as the lowest concentration of the peptide that inhibited the visible growth of L. monocytogenes after incubation at 37 °C after 20 hours.

In one embodiment, the term "cognate immunity protein" should be understood to mean a protein, which, when expressed, increases strain resistance to the lantibiotic peptide when expressed, increases strain resistance to the lantibiotic peptide by increasing the content of esterified D-alanyl groups of techoic acids on the bacterial cell surface thereby resulting in a decrease in the net negative charge of the bacterial cell wall and reducing the potential of the initial electrostatic interaction of the cell with the cationic antimicrobial peptide. .

In the specification, the term "isolated" should be considered to mean material removed from its original environment in which it naturally occurs, for example, in this instance a bacterial strain of a marine sponge and/or an antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin and/or a cognate immunity protein. The removed material is typically cultivated, purified and cultured separately from the environment in which it was located. Thus, the purified isolated bacterial strain in this instance ideally does not contain any significant amounts of other bacterial strains. The isolated strain or variant of the invention may be provided in a viable or non-viable form, and in a culturable or non-culturable form, or in the form of spores which may be further treated (for example freeze-dried). The invention also relates to an isolated strain of the invention, or variant thereof, of an antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin and a cognate immunity protein, in any format, for example a freeze-dried form, a suspension, a powder, or a broth, for example a fermentation broth or an extract from a fermentation broth that is enriched in the antimicrobial peptide of the invention.

The term "freeze-dried form" should be understood to mean that the strain, the lantibiotic peptide designated Subtilomycin or the cognate immunity protein of the invention, optionally together with other ingredients including, for example, preservatives, is frozen and then the ice crystals in the frozen strain are sublimated under vacuum.

In the specification, the term "mammal" or "individual" as employed herein should be taken to mean, where appropriate, a human; however it should also include marine animals for which the prophylaxis, therapy or use of the invention is practicable, for example, in fish farms. The term "animal" should be understood to include any animal including humans and marine animals such as, for example, fish. In this specification, the term "administering" should be taken to include any form of delivery that is capable of delivering the bacterial strain to a site of infection, including local delivery, intravenous delivery, oral delivery, intranasal delivery, intramuscular delivery, intrathecal delivery, transdermal delivery, inhaled delivery and topical delivery. Methods for achieving these means of delivery will be well known to those skilled in the art of drug delivery. For treatment or prophylaxis of MRSA or Staphylococcus or hysteria infections, especially chronic MRSA infections in hospital patients, intranasal delivery is ideal as it delivers the bacterial strain expressing the antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin or isolated antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin of the invention directly to the nasal mucous membrane where the target bacteria mucoid infections exist and are ordinarily difficult to remove.

In this specification, the term "pharmaceutical composition" should be taken to mean compositions comprising a therapeutically effective amount of the antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin, or variants thereof, that in one embodiment are produced in- situ in the composition by a bacterial strain, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent. In a specific embodiment, the term "pharmaceutically acceptable" means approved by a regulatory agency of the Federal or a state government or listed in the U.S. Pharmacopeia or other generally recognized pharmacopeia for use in animals, and more particularly in humans. The term "carrier" refers to a diluent, adjuvant, excipient, or vehicle with which the bacterial strain and/or antimicrobial peptide is administered. Such pharmaceutical carriers can be sterile liquids, such as water and oils, including those of petroleum, animal, vegetable or synthetic origin, such as peanut oil, soybean oil, mineral oil, sesame oil and the like. Water is a preferred carrier when the pharmaceutical composition is administered intravenously. Saline solutions and aqueous dextrose and glycerol solutions can also be employed as liquid carriers, particularly for injectable solutions. Suitable pharmaceutical excipients include starch, glucose, lactose, sucrose, gelatin, malt, rice, flour, chalk, silica gel, sodium stearate, glycerol monostearate, talc, sodium chloride, dried skim milk, glycerol, propylene glycol, water, ethanol and the like.

The composition, if desired, can also contain minor amounts of wetting or emulsifying agents, or pH buffering agents. These compositions can take the form of solutions, suspensions, emulsion, tablets, pills, capsules, powders, sustained-release formulations and the like.

The composition can be formulated as a suppository, with traditional binders and carriers such as triglycerides. Oral formulation can include standard carriers such as pharmaceutical grades of mannitol, lactose, starch, magnesium stearate, sodium saccharine, cellulose, magnesium carbonate, etc. Examples of suitable pharmaceutical carriers are described in "Remington's Pharmaceutical Sciences" by E. W. Martin. Such compositions will contain a therapeutically effective amount of the therapeutic, preferably in purified form, together with a suitable amount of carrier so as to provide the form for proper administration to the patient. The formulation should suit the mode of administration.

In a preferred embodiment, the composition is formulated in accordance with routine procedures as a pharmaceutical composition adapted for intravenous administration to human beings. Typically, compositions for intravenous administration are solutions in sterile isotonic aqueous buffer. Where necessary, the composition may also include a solubilizing agent and a local anesthetic such as lignocaine to ease pain at the site of the injection. Generally, the ingredients are supplied either separately or mixed together in unit dosage form, for example, as a dry lyophilized powder or water free concentrate in a hermetically sealed container such as an ampoule or sachette indicating the quantity of active agent. Where the composition is to be administered by infusion, it can be dispensed with an infusion bottle containing sterile pharmaceutical grade water or saline. Where the composition is administered by injection, an ampoule of sterile water for injection or saline can be provided so that the ingredients may be mixed prior to administration.

"Effective amount" refers to the amount or dose of the antimicrobial peptide designated Subtilomycin, or variants thereof, upon single or multiple dose administration to the patient, which provides the desired effect in the patient under treatment. An effective amount can be readily determined by the attending diagnostician, as one skilled in the art, by the use of known techniques and by observing results obtained under analogous circumstances. In determining the effective amount or dose of bacterial strain expressing the antimicrobial peptide or the isolated antimicrobial peptide administered, a number of factors are considered by the attending diagnostician, including, but not limited to: the species of mammal; its size, age, and general health; the specific disease involved; the degree of or involvement or the severity of the disease; the response of the individual patient; the mode of administration; the bioavailabilty characteristics of the preparation administered; the dose regimen selected; the use of concomitant medication; and other relevant circumstances.

The term "comestible product" should be understood to include products that are intended to be consumed by ingestion by humans or animals, such as foods and drinks. In particular, the comestible product is a food or drink product intended for consumption by humans, for example a fermented product or a diary product, especially a fermented dairy product such as a yoghurt. Material and Methods

Bacterial strains, media and growth conditions

Bacterial strains used in this study are listed in Table 1. B. subtilis strain MMA7, was isolated from the marine sponge H. simulans collected during scuba diving in Gurraig Sound Kilkieran Bay, Galway, on the west coast of Ireland (Phelan et ah, 2012). Strains AF31 and CC15 were isolated from the shallow water sponges Amphilectus fucorum and Cliona celata, respectively, both collected from the Lough Hyne Marine Reserve, Ireland, by Scuba diving. Strains BD230-19, BD230-27, BD230-29, BD243-3 and BD 126-43 were isolated from the deep-water sponges BD230, BD126 and BD243, collected from the Rockall Ridge and Porcupine Bank, 300 nautical miles North West of Galway harbour, at a depth of 2900, 2129 and 1300 m, respectively. Unless stated otherwise, marine sponge B. subtilis isolates were routinely grown and maintained aerobically on Difco™ Marine agar (MA) and broth (MB) (Difco 2216), at 30°C. Other strains used in this study, including indicator strains, were grown in the media described in Table 1 below, aerobically at 37°C, with the exception of Aeromonas hydrophila, Vibrio anguillarum, Camobacterium malteromaticum and all the Candida strains that were incubated at 30°C. Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium sporogenes were grown anaerobically in an anaerobic jar at 37°C. E. coli DH5cc used for cloning experiments was grown in Luria-Bertani (LB). For B. subtilis strains chloramphenicol was used at 5 μg ml ^"1 .

Table 1. Bacterial strains used in this study

Bacterial strains Growth media ^a /origin ^b

Bacillus cereus NCIMB 9373 LB/ MDCC UCC

Bacillus subtilis NCDO 1769 LB/ MDCC UCC

Bacillus subtilis NRRL B-23052 ^T LB/ BGSC

Bacillus subtilis 168 LB/ BGSC

Bacillus subtilis DSM 347 LB/ DSMZ

Bacillus megaterium ATCC 19213 (BGSC 7A2) LB/ BGSC

Staphylococcus aureus NCDO 949 BHI/ MDCC UCC

MRSA ST 530 BHI/ MDCC UCC

VISA 22784 BHI/ MDCC UCC hVISA 35197 BHI/ MDCC UCC

VRE EC725 BHI MDCC UCC

Enterococcous faecium NCIMB 11508 BHI MDCC UCC

Listeria innocua DPC 3567 BHI/ MDCC UCC

Listeria monocytogenes EGDe BHI/ MDCC UCC

Clostridium perfringens NCDO 1799 TGB/ MDCC UCC

Clostridium sporogenes NCDO 1791 TGB/ MDCC UCC

Clostridium difficile 001 BHI/ MDCC UCC

Carnobacterium malteromaticum LMG 9839 TSB/ BCCM ^™ /LMG BC

Lactococcus lactis HP GM17/MDCC UCC

Escherichia coli NCIMB 15943 LB/ MDCC UCC

Escherichia coli MUH 103 LB/ (Mac Aogain et al, 2010)

Enterobacter aerogenes NCIMB 10102 LB/ MDCC UCC

Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 LB/ MDCC UCC

Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAOl LB/ MDCC UCC

Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 LB/ (Holden et al., 2009)

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia K279A LB/ (Crossman et al., 2008)

Klebsiella pneumoniae MUH 588 LB/ (Mac Aogain et al, 2010)

Serratia marcescens MUH 436 LB/ (Mac Aogain et al., 2010)

Morganella morganii MUH 988 LB/ (Mac Aogain et al., 2010)

Aeromonas hydrophila LMG 2844 TSB(NA)/ BCCM ^™ /LMG BC

Listonella {Vibrio) anguillarum LMG 4410 MB/ DSMZ

Candida glabrata YPD/ MDCC UCC

Candida albicans SC5314 YPD/ MDCC UCC Candida dubliniensis YPD/ MDCC UCC

Candida lusitaniae YPD/ MDCC UCC

Candida parapsilosis YPD/ MDCC UCC

aStandard media were: LB, Luria Bertani; TGB, Thioglycolate broth (Merck); YPD, Yeast extract peptone dextrose media; BHI, Brain heart infusion (Merck); MB, Marine broth (Difco); TSB, Tryptic soya broth (Merck); NA, Nutrient agar (Difco). ^b Bacterial strains were obtained from the Microbiology Department Culture Collection, University College Cork (MDCC UCC), the Bacillus Genetic Stock Centre (BGSC), Belgium Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM™) /LGM Bacteria Collection and DSMZ, DSM Collection, Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Braunschweig, Germany. MRSA, Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; VISA, vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus; hVISA, heterogeneous VISA, and VRE, Vancomycin resistant enterococci.

Antimicrobial activity screening assays

Antimicrobial activity of isolate MMA7 against the indicator strains was initially assessed with a deferred antagonism assay as described by Phelan et al. (2012). Subsequent testing of supematants, crude extracts and purified compounds was carried out with a well and/or a spot on lawn assays. Essentially, 5 μΐ of samples were spotted onto 20 ml agar plates seeded with the indicator strain to a final Οϋδοο of 0.015, or 30 μΐ aliquots were applied to a 5 mm well made on identical plates. The concentration of the purified peptide was estimated using the Bicinchoninic acid (BCA) Protein Assay Kit, Pierce ^® , as described by the manufacturer (Thermo Scientific, Rockford, Illinois, USA).

DNA extraction, PCR amplification, DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis Genomic DNA was extracted from 5 ml overnight MB cultures by a modification of the guanidine thiocyanate method described by Pitcher et al. (Pitcher et al., 1989). Plasmid DNA was purified from 5 ml overnight E. coli LB cultures with the QIAprep spin Miniprep Kit (Qiagen, GmbH, Hilden, Germany). All oligonucleotide primers used in this study are listed in Table 2 below. Unless stated otherwise PCR reactions (50 μΐ) contained lx BioTaq PCR buffer (Bioline), 1.5 mM MgCl ₂ , 0.2 mM dNTPs, 0.5 μΜ of each primer, 2.5 U BioTaq DNA polymerase (Bioline), and 3 μΐ bacterial lysates or 50 ng of genomic DNA as template. With the exception of the annealing temperature (Table 2), and the extension time, the cycling parameters for the amplification of the different target sequences remained constant. An initial denaturation at 94 °C for 4 min, was followed by 30 cycles of 94 °C for 30 s, X °C for 30 s, and 72 °C for X min, with a final extension of 10 min at 72 °C. When required, PCR products were purified using the QIAquick PCR purification kit (Qiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany). Routine DNA sequencing was performed by GATC-Biotech, AG (Germany).

Partial gyrA gene sequences of the marine sponge B. subtilis isolates were deposited in GenBank with the following accession numbers: CC15, JX977124; AF31, JX977125; 243-3, JX977126; 230-19, JX977127; 230-29, JX977128; 126-43, JX977129; 230-27, JX977131; MMA7, JX977130. For phylogenetic analysis, 620 nt of the gyrA genes (nt 232 to 852 in the E. coli gyrA gene, accession number AP012306.1) were aligned using Clustal X2 (Larkin et al., 2007). Neighbour-joining phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA 4 (Tamura et al., 2007) and bootstrap tests were performed 1000 times.

Table 2. Oligonucleotide primers used in this study.

Primer Sequence (5'-3') * Annealing

(°C)/ SEQ ID NO:

Construction of MMA7 Asbo-albF::cat mutant sboUp-F (Hindlll) CCCAAGCTTCCATCATTGCTCATCAGATTTGA 58/1 sbo-R (BamHI) CGCGGATCCTCCGATCGAGCATGTTGCACAA 58/2 albF-F (EcoRI) CCGGAATTCCATCCTGCTTGATGCGTTATGGA 52/3 albF-R (Xhol) CCGCTCGAGGTGTCTTCTGAGCCTCCGATCAA 52/4

Verification of MMA7 Asbo-albF::cat mutant ywiB-F CACATGGAGTGTTATCGGTG 52/5 albFDown-R CTGTAATCCGGTCCATGTGT 52/6 albA-R2 TGCCACAGTTTATGGACGAGAGG 52/7 albD-F GCAGACAGAGCAGCAGCTCTGGA 52/8 cat255-R ^# CGTTTGTTGAACTAATGGGTG 52/9 cat958-D ^# GGGTAACTAGCCTGCAGGCAATAGTTACCC 52/10

Bacteriocins screening primers spaC-F ACTATGAATCAATGGAAGG 48/11 (subtilin)

spaS-R TTGCAGTTACAAGTTAGTG 48/12 (subtilin)

sublancin-F GTGTGCTGCGTTGCTACAA 55/13 (sublancin)

sublancin-R TTGACGAGATACAAGCTAGTCC 55/14 (sublancin)

Sbo-F GGTTGTGCAACATGCTCGAT 52/15 (subtilosin)

AlbA- CTCAGGAAGCTGGTGAACTC 52/16 (subtilosin)

subA2569-F TGCGGATGACAGATTCGTATTGC 60/17 (subtilomycin)

subA2571-R ACAGCTGTACCGTGCCCATATAGA 60/18 (subtilomycin)

Introduced restriction sites are underlined. Cat, chloramphenicol resistance cassette.

Construction of strain MMA7 Asbo-albF::cat mutant

Preparation and transformation of chemically competent E. coli DH5cc cells was carried out as described by Sambrook et al.

To create a sbo-albF insertion-deletion mutant, DNA fragments containing 284 nt of the upstream and coding region of the structural gene, sbo (nt 136 to 420, accession number AJ430547) and 284 nt internal nucleotides of the albF gene (nt 5684 to 5968, accession number AJ430547), were PCR amplified from the genomic DNA of strain MMA7 with the primer pair SboUp-F/ Sbo-R and AlbF-F/ AlbF-R, respectively (Table 2). Digested amplified fragments were sequentially inserted between the HindHI-BamHl sites and EcoRI-XhoI sites flanking the chloramphenicol resistance cassette in the pMK3 derivative integrational vector, pMS38 (Zilhao et al., 2004). The resulting construct was named pRPl. Strain TB2 (MMA7 Asbo-albF::cat, Chl ^R ), in which the sbo-albF region (nucleotides 420 to 5684, accession number AJ430547) was replaced by a chloramphenicol cassette by a double-crossover event, was generated by the transformation of strain MMA7 with Seal linearised pRPl, with subsequent selection for chloramphenicol resistance (Chl ^R ). Disruption of the cluster in the mutants was confirmed by PCR with a combination of primers specific for the chloramphenicol cassette, and primers flanking or internal to, the deleted region. Specifically, primer pairs ywiB-F & albA-R2, ywiB-F & cat255-R, albD-F & albFDown-R, cat958-D & albFDown-R (Table 2).

Kinetics of subtilomycin production

100 ml MB and LB media were inoculated (1: 100) with overnight MB and LB cultures, respectively, of the producing strain and grown at 30°C, 150 rpm shaking on an orbital incubator. The optical density (600 nm) was read hourly until 14h incubation and then at 24h incubation and 5 ml aliquots removed at each time point and centrifuged at 3200 rpm, 15 min, 20°C. Supernatants were filter sterilised (33mm Cellulose Acetate, 0.45 μιη syringe filters, Anachem Ltd), and freeze dried (Labconco Freezone6, Labconco Kansas City, Missouri, USA) for 16 h. Freeze dried material was resuspended in 500 μΐ of sterile HPLC grade water (approx. 1/10 initial volume) and tested for activity in a well diffusion assay against different indicator strains.

Purification and characterisation of subtilomycin

Approximately 1 litre of B. subtilis MMA7 12 h MB cultures were centrifuged at 3200 rpm, for 15 min at 20°C and the supernatant filter sterilized using a Nalgene ^® vacuum filtration system (0.45 μιη, Sigma- Aldrich ^® ). Ammonium sulphate was added intermittently to the cell free supernatant to 40 % saturation, and gently stirred overnight at 4°C. The resulting proteinaceous precipitate was collected by centrifugation of 100 ml aliquots at 12,500 rpm, for 90 min, at 4° C and resuspended in total volume of 2 ml of sterile HPLC grade water (Sigma -Aldrich, CHROMASOLV ^® Plus) (1/500 of original volume). Subsequent purification by Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) was achieved by applying 1 ml RP of the ammonium sulphate crude extract onto a Phenomenex ^® C12 column (Jupiter 4 μ proteo 90 A, 250 X 10.0, 4 μιη). Separation was carried out with a gradient of acetonitrile (33 to 65 %) containing 0.1% TFA from 5 - 50 min, at a flow rate of 2.1 ml min ¹ and separation monitored at 214 nm. Fractions were evaporated to dryness on a speedvac (Savant DNA 120, Speedvac, Thermo Scientific), and the resulting pellets resuspended in 1/2 original volume of sterile HPLC grade water, before being tested for activity with a spot on lawn assay against L. monocytogenes. The purity and size of the compound on the active fraction was initially estimated on an AXIMA-TOF ² MALDI Mass spectrometer (Shimadzu Biotech, Manchester, UK).

Further analysis of the nature and structure of the compound was carried out by Alphalyse A/S (Odense, Denmark). This involved determination of the amino acid composition, MALDI MS and MALDI MS/MS analysis.

1.77 μg of RP-HPLC purified sample resuspended in 0.1% TFA was used for amino acid analysis The acid hydrolysis was performed for 20 hours at 110°C, in 6 N HC1, 0.1% phenol, 0.1% thioglycolic acid. The hydrolysis took place under reduced pressure in an atmosphere of argon. Identification and quantification of the amino acids took place on a BioChrom 30 amino acid analyzer using ion exchange chromatography, post- column derivatization with ninhydrin and detection at two wavelengths, 570 nm and 440 nm. A known amount of the non-natural amino acid norleucine (Nle) was added as an internal control standard. The common 20 amino acids, except tryptophan and cysteine, were determined. Under the conditions employed tryptophan was degraded, and the yield of cysteine was so variable that it was not calculated. Asparagine was determined as aspartic acid and glutamine as glutamic acid. For MALDI MS and MS/MS of intact peptide, approx. 5 pmol peptide was spotted onto a steel target with alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) matrix and was analyzed on a Bruker Autoflex Speed instrument. For MALDI MS and MS/MS analysis of trypsin digests, the peptide was digested with trypsin at 37 °C overnight and the resulting peptides were concentrated on a C18 ziptip from Millipore and eluted with CHCA matrix in 50% acetonitrile / 0.1% TFA. Analysis was on a Bruker Autoflex Speed instrument. Subsequent analysis involved alkylation of the peptide with β- mercaptoethanol in a basic solution. Alkylation increased the peptide mass by 78 Da for each alkylated amino acid. Samples were taken out at different times to follow the alkylation process. When samples were removed they were acidified with TFA and purified on a C18 ziptip from Millipore before being eluted with alpha-cyano-4- hydroxycinnamic acid matrix in 50% acetonitrile/0.1% TFA. Sample were subsequently analysed by MALDI MS and MS/MS.

Reduction of the peptide with DTT was used to ascertain the potential presence of disulfide bonds, as the peptide mass would be increased by 2 Da when a disulfide bond is broken due to the addition of two hydrogen atoms. Tricine-SDS-PAGE Bioactivity Assay

The purity and activity of the bioactive compounds were analyzed by tricine- sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-15% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) with Tricine running buffer. Samples were run in duplicate, and while one half of the gel was stained with Coomassie blue (Brilliant Blue G, Sigma- Aldrich), the other half was assayed for inhibitory activity by overlaying the gel with soft-agar previously inoculated with a selected indicator strain. Plates were next incubated under the conditions required for the chosen indicator.

Determination of the mode of action of the purified peptide

Initially 100 μΐ aliquots of a two-fold serial dilution of the MB 12h cultures CFS, ASCE and the purified peptide (approx. 150 μg ml ^"1 ), were applied to individual wells on a 96 flat bottom multiple well plate (Sarstedt). An overnight culture of the indicator strain was diluted to an OD5 ₉ 5 of 0.05 and 100 μΐ were applied to each of the wells containing the bioactive peptide. The plate was incubated at 37 °C, with agitation (200 rpm) and the optical density (595 nm) was monitored hourly. Wells where the indicator was added to water only were used as negative controls. Subsequently, 100 μΐ of indicator overnight cultures diluted to an OD5 ₉ 5 of 0.05 were applied to individual wells on a 96 well plate and allowed to grow to an OD595 of 0.5-0.6. 100 μΐ of a two-fold serial dilutions of the CFS, the respective ASCE and purified peptide, or water, were then applied to the different wells and growth continued to be monitored hourly. At the different time points samples were taken and the number of cfu determined by plating dilutions onto appropriate agar plates.

Heat, pH and proteolytic treatment ofbioactive samples

To establish the thermal stability of the purified peptide, aliquots were exposed to 40, 60, 80 and 100 °C for 30 and 60 min respectively before being tested for bioactivity on a spot on lawn assay. Untreated samples were used as controls. In a similar way, samples were checked for activity following storage for different time periods at room temperature, 4 °C, -20 °C and -80 °C.

The activity of the purified peptide at different pH values was established by resuspending identical quantities of the peptide in 50 μΐ of 100 mM Tris buffer, with pH values between 2 to 11. Samples were incubated for 1 h at room temperature before being tested for antimicrobial activity against L. monocytogenes on spot on lawn assays. The different buffers were also individually tested as negative controls.

Susceptibility to proteolytic enzymes was tested on the ammonium sulphate crude extracts and the purified peptide. Samples resuspended in water were incubated with proteinase K, a-chymo trypsin and a protease mixture from Streptomyces griseus (Sigma Aldrich ^® 81748), to a final concentration of 1 mg ml ^"1 , at 37 °C for 1 h. Samples were then heated to 100 °C for 2 min to inactivate the proteolytic enzymes and bioactivity was tested with a spot on lawn assay.

Genome sequencing of B. subtilis MMA7 and sequence analysis of the subtilomycin biosynthetic gene cluster

The genome of isolate MMA7 has been sequenced by Genospec, Inc. (Houston, TX USA ) using Illumina Sequencing technology on a Illumina High Seq 2000 (Illumina Inc. California, USA). The sequencing data, which provided 100X coverage of the genome, was assembled into 48 contigs, spanning approximately 4.2 Mb. A total of 4277 open reading frames (ORFs) were determined and annotated using the RAST Server (Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) and the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) programme at NCBI.

BPROM (http://www.softbeiTv,com/berry,phtml) and the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project (BDGP) (Tomancak et al., 2002, Tomancak et al., 2007), promoter prediction algorithms were used to identify putative promoters within the Subtilomycin gene cluster. Promoters were selected based on the results from both algorithms. Only promoters identified by both algorithms were given further consideration.

For comparison of the amino acid sequence of lantibiotic precursors sequences obtained from http://www.uniprot.org were aligned with ClustalX (Multiple Sequence Alignment version 2.0.11, Larkin et al. 2007) and sequence analysis processed with GeneDoc (Multiple sequence Alignment Editor & Shading Utility, Version 2.7.000, h ftp ://www . p sc . edu/bi omed/genedoc ) . Results

Spectrum of antimicrobial activity ofB. subtilis strain MMA7

Strain B. subtilis MMA7 isolated from the marine sponge H. simulans, was previously shown to display a strong antimicrobial activity against different indicator bacteria (Phelan et al., 2012). The spectrum of activity of this isolate has been extended in the current study to include marine associated Gram- negative bacteria, such as Aeromonas hydrophila, Vibrio anguillarum and Alteromonas sp., and nosocomial pathogens, such as VRE, VISA, hVISA and MRS A (Table 1 and Table 4). Strong inhibitory activity was also seen towards multiple Candida species, such as C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. lusitaniae and C. parapsilosis.

Table 4. Antimicrobial activity of B. subtilis strain MMA7, derived ammonium sulphate crude extract and purified peptide*.

Indicators Deferred ASCE-12h Peptide

antagonism assay

B. cereus +++ ++ ++

B. megaterium ++++ ++ ++

L. monocytogenes ++++ ++ ++

L. innocua ++++ ++ ++

C. sporogenes +++++ +++ +++

C. perfringens ++++ +

C. difficile ++ E. faecium ++ - -

S. aureus ++ + +

MRSA ++ + +

hVISA + + +

VRE + - -

L. lactis HP ++++ ++ +

A. hydrophila ++++ ++ +*

V. anguillarum + - +*

Alteromonas sp. +++ + +*

P. aeruginosa - - +*

C. albicans ++++

C. dubliniensis ++ - -

C. lusitaniae ++ - -

C. parapsilosis + - -

^# Producer B. subtilis strain MMA7 was grown on Marine agar (MA) for the deferred antagonism assays. Antimicrobial activity of ammonium sulphate crude extracts (ASCE) and purified peptide was tested by a spot on lawn assay. Testing was repeated at least three times and representative results are shown. +, clear halo of growth inhibition; multiple +, increased activity as assessed visually by the increased diameter of the inhibition zone; -, no inhibition. *Activity only detected with 4 to 5 times more peptide than that used for the other indicators. No activity was detected against Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA 14, Burkholderia cenocepacia, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia marcescens, Morganella morganii and Candida glabrata.

PCR screening for previously described B. subtilis bacteriocins

In order to test for the presence of genes encoding the B. subtilis bacteriocins subtilosin, sublancin or subtilin in strain MMA7, PCR primers sets were designed to amplify sequences corresponding to the associated biosynthetic gene clusters (Table 2). While no amplification was observed with primers targeting sublancin and subtilin, a PCR product was obtained with subtilosin-specific primers. This result was confirmed by sequencing of the 298 bp amplified product [99 % nucleotide sequence homology with the subtilosin structural gene, sbo, from B. subtilis subsp. subtilis DSM10 (accession number JN118839) in a blastn search].

To determine if the antimicrobial activity of strain MMA7 was associated with the presumptive production of subtilosin, a deletion insertion mutant was created in which the DNA between the putative peptide structural gene sbo and the albF peptidase gene, was replaced by a double crossover event by a chloramphenicol resistance cassette, to produce the Asbo-albF::cat mutant (TB2). The antimicrobial activity of both the wild type strain B. subtilis MMA7 and the TB2 mutant was subsequently assessed against susceptible indicator bacteria. No marked difference in either the antimicrobial activity or spectrum of activity was observed between the two B. subtilis strains (Fig. 1A), indicating that the putative subtilosin gene in B. subtilis MMA7 was not involved in the observed antimicrobial activity and suggesting the likely production of other antimicrobial compound(s) by the strain.

Kinetics of antimicrobial activity

In order to establish the kinetics of production of the bio-active compound(s), the producing strain was grown in Marine Broth (MB) and Luria Bertani (LB) and the bioactivity of freeze-dried supematants collected at the different time points examined on a well assay against the indicator B. cereus and L. monocytogenes strains. Inhibitory activity was initially detected at early stationary phase (approx. 8-1 Oh post-incubation) (Figure 1A and IB). However, this was only the case for MB cultures, with no activity being detected at any time point from LB cultures (data not shown). There was also a clear difference between the spectrum of activity of MB supematants collected after 12 h incubation versus those collected after 24 h (Figure IB). While 12 h and 24 h concentrated supematants showed identical activity against some of the indicators, such as B. cereus, the activity detected with 12 h supematants against L. monocytogenes, was not evident from 24 h samples. The latter were also inactive against the indicators C. sporogenes and L. lactis.

Purification of the antimicrobial compound(s)

The purification strategy for the antimicrobial compound(s) associated with the activity detected from 12 h MB supematants, involved an initial ammonium sulphate precipitation step (40% saturation). The activity of the resulting precipitate upon re- suspension in water suggested that the active compound may be proteinaceous in nature (Table 4, Figure 2B, lane 2). Aliquots (1 ml) of the active ammonium sulphate crude extract (ASCE) were subsequently purified by RP-HPLC on a C 12 column, and a single peak with a retention time of 24.070 min, at approximately 46%, on the acetonitrile gradient, was observed (Fig. 2A). The activity of the HPLC fractions containing the peak of interest was next confirmed against a number of indicator strains (Table 4). In order to establish the purity and size of the bioactive component(s), samples were then run on a 15 % T-SDS-PAGE gel and overlayed with the indicator organism Clostridium sporogenes. Activity was associated with a prominent band in the 3 to 5 kDa range, in both the ASCE and the RP-HPLC purified fractions (Figure 2B). A similar activity was observed in L. monocytogenes overlays.

MALDI TOF MS analysis of the active RP-HPLC fractions revealed a singular low molecular mass of 3235 Da suggesting that the sample was pure or almost pure (Figure 3A). Searches on different antimicrobial databases returned no match for the proposed mass.

Antimicrobial spectrum and mechanism of action of the bioactive peptide

The activity of the purified peptide was tested together with its ASCE preparations, against the strains which were initially used as indicators on the colony overlay assay with the producing strain MMA7 (Table 4). While inhibitory activity was readily detected against most of the Gram-positive indicators, the strong activity seen on the colony overlay assay against V. anguillarum, A. hydrophila and Alteromonas sp., although clear, was only detected with four to five fold more peptide than that required to inhibit the Gram-positive indicators. No activity was detected against any of the Candida strains.

The nature of the inhibitory activity was further analysed by growing the indicator L. monocytogenes in the presence or absence of CFS, ASCE and the purified peptide from 12 h MB cultures of the producing strain. While only a small inhibitory effect was observed with the CFS, both the ASCE and subtilomycin preparations appeared to completely abolish growth of the indicator (Figure 4). When test samples were added to L. monocytogenes at an OD595 of approx. 0.6, a dramatic drop in optical density was detected, which resulted in an equivalent drop in CFUs from aliquots removed at the different time points after the addition of the test samples (Figure 4), suggesting a bacteriolytic action for the peptide. These values were maintained after 24 hr incubation. Solubility and stability of the bioactive peptide

Dried pellets originated from 1.5 ml RP-HPLC-purified Subtilomycin containing fractions were fully soluble in water, and aliquots of these samples retained activity against L. monocytogenes and B. cereus on a spot on lawn assay when stored at -20 °C and -80 °C for a period of up to 4 months. No activity was however detected after 5 months storage. Identical samples stored at 4 °C and room temperature lost their activity after two weeks.

The activity of purified Subtilomycin was stable over a wide range of temperatures, including 100 °C for 30 minutes (Figure 5), although no activity against L. monocytogenes was observed if the samples were incubated for 1 hr at this temperature. Purified subtilomycin was also fully active over a wide pH range (2 to 8), and while a reduction in activity was seen at pH 9, no activity was detected at higher pH values (Figure 5).

Susceptibility to proteolytic degradation was established by mixing 12h ASCE and purified subtilomycin preparations with proteinase K, a-chymotrypsin and a protease from Streptomyces griseus. Antimicrobial activity was initially monitored on a spot on lawn assay using L. monocytogenes as indicator (Figure 5). None of the treatments resulted in a decrease of activity of the ASCE or the purified subtilomycin, with the exception of a complete loss of activity of the purified subtilomycin after treatment with the Streptomyces griseus protease (Figure 5).

Primary amino acid sequence of subtilomycin

Hydrolysis of the compound purified by RP-HPLC and subsequent amino acid detection confirmed the peptide nature of the compound. Subsequent MS and MS/MS analysis showed that the intact mass of the peptide has a number of oxidised forms (Figure 3B) typical of the presence of thioethers, indicating that the compound was potentially a lantibiotic.

Initial structural analysis of the peptide proved problematic given that Edman degradation was not possible as the N-terminal end of the peptide was blocked. Trypsin digestion and alkylation of the peptide followed by MALDI MS and MS/MS analysis however provided a tentative primary amino acid sequence of the N-terminal part of the peptide; and established that the peptide contained at least 6 to 7 unusual amino acids which are common in lantibiotic peptides, such as Dhb, Dha and lanthionine. By combining data from MS/MS fragmentation of the intact peptide, tryptic peptides from the intact protein and the intact alkylated peptide it was possible to determine up to 15 amino acids from the N-terminal end. Two of the 15 amino acids were Dhb, confirmed by a gain of 78 Da after alkylation and a modified amino acid appeared to be present in the terminal sequence. The presumptive amino acid sequence provided by the initial structural analysis was used in subsequent BLASTp and TBLASTn searches against the draft genome sequence of B. subtilis MMA7. Following theses searches, homology was detected with a small protein-coding gene. This gene is located in the vicinity of protein-coding genes showing similarities to genes encoding lantibiotic modification enzymes. This allowed for the aforementioned experiments to be repeated, refined and the N-terminal sequence of the peptide to be confirmed as T-W-A-T-I-G-K-T-I-V-Q-S-V-K-K (SEQ ID NO: 24). This lantibiotic has been named as 'subtilomycin' . The nucleotide sequence encoding the N-terminal peptide sequence was confirmed as 5'- aaacttgggctacaatcggaaaaactattgtgcagtctgtgaaaaaa-3' (SEQ ID NO: 20).

Genetic organisation and location of the subtilomycin biosynthetic gene cluster

The primary amino acid sequence of the N-terminal part of subtilomycin obtained from MS/MS de novo sequencing was then used to establish the genetic location of the lantibiotic encoding gene. As previously noted, a single match was found with the C- terminal part of a small gene (subA, 171 nt), located immediately upstream from ORFs that encode for proteins which have been shown to be involved in the processing of class I lantibiotics, such as LanB-like dehydratase and LanC-like cyclase modification enzymes (SubB and SubC, respectively, Figure 6). These three genes appear to be clustered with three other ORFs, specific to strain MMA7 and to the genome of a recently sequenced endophytic B. subtilis strain BSn5, isolated from Amorphophallus konjac (Deng et al., 2011), but have relatively low homology to other sequences presented in the NCBI nr database (Table 5). Two of the remaining three ORFs appear to encode a putative extracellular serine protease (subP) and an ABC transporter (subT) respectively, which are likely to be involved in the processing and transport of the lantibiotic. The other ORF (subP) has no homology to any other sequence in the database and could encode an immunity protein. The ORFs flanking these sequences show high homology (greater than 95 %) with the genome of B. subtilis 168, including a putative two-component response regulator, ybdJ, and sensor histidine kinase, ybclK, genes located downstream of the cluster (Figure 6). In silico analysis of the biosynthetic cluster identified two putative promoter sequences, located upstream of subA and subT, respectively. Table 5. Sequence homology of the proteins encoded by the subtilomycin biosynthetic gene cluster*.

No. Closest homologue % Identity & E aa aligned region (aa) value*

SubA 56 Bacillus thuringiensis serovar thuringiensis 56% 28/50 3E-07 str. TO 1001.

SubP 324 Bacillus amyloliquefaciens DSM 7 34% 113/333 6E - subtilisin-type proteinase 44

SubB 1045 Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 31% 336/1075 6E- lantibiotic biosynthesis protein SpaB 144

SubC 440 Bacillus thuringiensis IBL 200 44% 185/424 8E-

Lantibiotic biosynthesis protein 109

Subl 80 Lactococcus phage BK5-T 31% 16/51 1.3 hypothetical protein

SubT 585 Staphylococcus epidermidis VCU121 45% 258/573 0.0

ABC transporter, ATP-binding protein

* Results are from a BLASTp search of the GenBank protein database on 12/09/2012.

#Expectation value.

Further sequence analysis of the flanking regions of the putative subtilomycin biosynthetic gene cluster allowed us to establish that the cluster is inserted in the same genomic locus as the sporulation killing factor (skf) operon in B. subtilis subsp. subtilis strain 168 (Gonzalez-Pastor et al., 2003) (Figure 6). The nucleotide sequence encompassing the putative subtilomycin biosynthetic cluster (SEQUENCE ID NO: 21) and neighbouring genes has been deposited in GenBank under accession number JX912247. The amino acid sequence of the putative subtilomycin biosynthetic gene cluster encoded by SEQUENCE ID NO: 21 is provided by SEQUENCE ID NO: 29 (SubA), SEQUENCE ID NO: 30 (SubP), SEQUENCE ID NO: 31 (SubB), SEQUENCE ID NO: 32 (SubC), SEQUENCE ID NO: 33 (Subl), and SEQUENCE ID NO: 34 (SubT).

Further structural characterisation of subtilomycin

The presence of an N-terminal 2-oxo butyrate residue was established by MS/MS analysis of the peptide. Such residues arise as a consequence of the fact that N-terminal Dhb residues are not stable and undergo spontaneous oxidative deamination. The deaminated Dhb (Dhb*) weighs 85 Da instead of 83 Da, resulting in a mass gain of 2 Da. The mass difference from the alanine at position 3 to the N-terminal of subtilomycin equals 271.3 Da, which corresponds to the sum of 186.07 for the tryptophan residue with 85.03 for the deaminated Dhb.

One sequence for the lantibiotic is Dhb*-W-A-Dhb-I-G-K-Dhb-I-V-Q-Dha-V-K-K-C- R-Dhb-F-Dhb-C-G-C-Dha-L-G-Dha-C-Dha-N-C-N (SEQ ID NO: 22) where the underlined amino acids have been experimentally confirmed by mass spectrometric analysis. The C-terminal of the peptide was not suitable for de novo sequencing. This could be due to the presence of the unusual Lan and MeLan amino acids in this region of the peptide. Data from the analysis of tryptic digests suggested that the C-terminal of the peptide could possibly contain up to 5 ring structures, three Lan and two MeLan, since five cysteines, three Dha and two Dhb are present in this section of the peptide. There was no mass change following DTT reductions suggesting that no disulphide bonds were present in the peptide.

In summary, the 32 amino acids long lantibiotic contains nine modified amino acids, five of which are involved in the formation of thioether bridges (Figure 7). The theoretical mass of the proposed sequence is 3234.5, while the observed mass was 3234.6 (m/z = 3235.6).

BLASTp analysis of the peptide against the non-redundant protein sequences (nr) NCBI database did not reveal any homology with previously characterised bacteriocins, retrieving a single 100% homology hit with the previously mentioned endophytic B. subtilis strain BSn5. The sequence was subsequently used to search the bactibase (http://bactibase.pfba-lab-tun.org/main.php) and the antimicrobial peptide databases (http://aps.unmc.edu/AP/main.php) which highlighted similarities with previously identified lantibiotics. The closest homology (54%) was with paenibaciUin produced by Paenibacillus polymyxa OSY-DF (SEQ ID NO: 35) (He et al., 2007, He et al., 2008) (Figure 7), followed by epilancin 15X produced by Staphylococcus epidermidis 15X154 (43%) (SEQ ID NO: 41). Although the structure of purified paenibaciUin has been elucidated, the genetics of the associated biosynthetic cluster have not been published. As a result comparative analysis of the paenibaciUin and subtilomycin pre-peptides (Figure 7) and respective gene clusters was not possible. Based on the primary amino acid sequence of subtilomycin, a proposed structure for subtilomycin is provided (Figure 7), which reflects that experimentally established for paenibaciUin (He et al., 2008). However further analysis will be required to definitively establish the proposed structure. Distribution of the subtilomycin biosynthetic gene cluster

Different secondary metabolites, and bacteriocins in particular, appear to have distinct distribution or prevalence patterns among related bacteria. A group of B. subtilis strains isolated from different coastal (CC15, AF31) and deep water marine (230-19, 230-29, 230-27, 126-43, 243-3) sponges were thus screened with PCR primers targeting the subtilomycin structural gene, sub A (Table 2). A PCR product was detected in all of the marine sponges tested, but was absent in other non-marine derived B. subtilis strains which were screened (Figure 8). In order to establish the phylogenetic relationship between the sponge isolates with their counterparts, the gyrA gene sequences obtained from the strains, using gyrA specific PCR primers (Table 2) were used to generate a Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree (Figure 8). This analysis indicated that the sponge isolates although, more closely related to B. subtilis subsp. subtilis than to the other subspecies, appear to form subgroups which cluster together, and are more closely related to each other than to other, non-sponge, isolates. Despite several reports describing the isolation of bioactive Bacillus strains from marine sponges, very few have successfully identified the associated antimicrobial compounds. In this study a novel class I lantibiotic, herein named subtilomycin, produced by B. subtilis MMA7 isolated from the marine sponge Haliclona simulans has been isolated and characterised.

In the specification the terms "comprise, comprises, comprised and comprising" or any variation thereof and the terms "include, includes, included and including" or any variation thereof are considered to be totally interchangeable and they should all be afforded the widest possible interpretation and vice versa.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described but may be varied in both construction and detail.

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