Novel functions and structures of heterocyclic antibacterial peptides

Bioinformatics analysis indicates that heterocycle-containing bioactive peptides are widespread in bacteria but their structures and functions remains largely unknown. The prototypical heterocycle peptide, microcin B17, targets the DNA gyrase, an essential bacterial enzyme. I will present data on genome-mining of new heterocycle peptide clusters and show that minimal changes of their scaffold can allow them to inhibit completely different targets, including the bacterial ribosome. The results underscore the potential of  heterocyclic peptides as versatile scaffolds for rational drug design.