Mutanobactin A from the human oral pathogen Streptococcus mutans is a cross-kingdom regulator of the yeast-mycelium transition

Abstract

The recent investigation of a gene cluster encoding for a hybrid PKS-NRPS metabolite in the oral pathogen Streptococcus mutans UA159 yielded evidence that this natural product might play an important role regulating a range of stress tolerance factors. We have now characterized the major compound generated from this gene cluster, mutanobactin A, and demonstrated that this secondary metabolite is also capable of influencing the yeast-mycelium transition of Candida albicans.