Part:BBa_K2599002

Antimicrobial peptide - Enterocin A

This biobrick is the basic part of the enterocin A, more information please look for the composite part (BBa_K2599010).

Figure 1. Basic part of Enterocin A

Introduction

Bacteriocin from Enterococcus faecium, called enteriocin A, belongs to class IIa. These kind of bacteriocins do not have post-translational modifications. It is a small, heat-stable peptide that is known as pediocin-like bacteriocins, which may contain one or two disulfide bridges.

Mechanism of Enterocin A

The bacteriocins inhibit their target organisms through pore formation. Though the mechanism of each inhibition is vary from species to species, the general process is conserved. To see more details, please search for our project page.

Enterocin A, like most of the class IIa bacteriocins, acts on the cytoplasmic membrane of gram-positive cells. It will bind to the receptor leading to an irreversible opening of an interinsic channel, allowing to form a pore, and therefore dissipate the transmembrane elctrical potential.

Features of Enterocin A

1. Species Specific

Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that will kill or inhibit bacterial strains closely related or non-related to produced bacteria, but will not harm the bacteria themselves by specific immunity proteins. The organisims that Enterocin A targets including Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, etc. More target organisms can be found on [http://bactibase.hammamilab.org/BAC088 bactibase].

2. Eco-friendly

Since enterocin A is a polypeptide naturally produced by bacteria itself and can inhibit other bacteria without much environment impact. It don't pose threat to other organisms like farm animals or humans. Therefore, this toxin will not cause safety problem.

3. Biodegradable

Enterocin A is a short peptide that will degrade in a short time. After degradation, this antibacterial peptide is harmless to our environment.

Experiment Result

Cloning

We conbined our toxic gene to pSB1C3 backbone and conducted PCR to check the size of our part. The enterocin A sequence length is around 192 b.p.

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]

Reference