Carsten Puder

Marine actinomycetes as a source of novel secondary metabolites.

A set of 600 actinomycetes strains which were isolated from marine sediments from various sites in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were screened for the production of bioactive secondary metabolites. Marine streptomycete strains were found to be producers of well known chemically diverse antibiotics isolated from terrestrial streptomycetes, as in the case of marine Micromonospora strains. New marine members of the rare genus Verrucosispora seem to be a promising source for novel bioactive secondary metabolites as shown in the case of the abyssomicin producing strain AB-18-032.

Frigocyclinone, a novel angucyclinone antibiotic produced by a Streptomyces griseus strain from Antarctica.

A new angucyclinone antibiotic, frigocyclinone, was isolated from Streptomyces griseus strain NTK 97, consisting of a tetrangomycin moiety attached through a C-glycosidic linkage with the aminodeoxysugar ossamine. Frigocyclinone showed antibacterial activities against Gram-positive bacteria.

High-Resolution Crystal Structure of a Lasso Peptide

Lasso peptides are a group of a growing class of bioactive peptides of microbial origin. The first crystal structure of a member of this family, the glucagon receptor antagonist BI-32169, shows that the fold is built predominantly by regular secondary structural elements and a tight network of hydrogen bonds that are partially shielded from solvent by hydrophobic amino acid side chains. This results in an extraordinary stable structure that is resistant to thermal unfolding or proteolytic digestion, which facilitates its biological function.