Lunaemycins, New Cyclic Hexapeptide Antibiotics from the Cave Moonmilk-Dweller Streptomyces lunaelactis MM109T

Abstract

<i>Streptomyces lunaelactis</i> strains have been isolated from moonmilk deposits, which are calcium carbonate speleothems used for centuries in traditional medicine for their antimicrobial properties. Genome mining revealed that these strains are a remarkable example of a <i>Streptomyces</i> species with huge heterogeneity regarding their content in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for specialized metabolite production. BGC 28a is one of the cryptic BGCs that is only carried by a subgroup of <i>S</i>. <i>lunaelactis</i> strains for which in silico analysis predicted the production of nonribosomal peptide antibiotics containing the non-proteogenic amino acid piperazic acid (Piz). Comparative metabolomics of culture extracts of <i>S</i>. <i>lunaelactis</i> strains either holding or not holding BGC 28a combined with MS/MS-guided peptidogenomics and ¹H/¹³C NMR allowed us to identify the cyclic hexapeptide with the amino acid sequence (D-Phe)-(L-HO-Ile)-(D-Piz)-(L-Piz)-(D-Piz)-(L-Piz), called lunaemycin A, as the main compound synthesized by BGC 28a. Molecular networking further identified 18 additional lunaemycins, with 14 of them having their structure elucidated by HRMS/MS. Antimicrobial assays demonstrated a significant bactericidal activity of lunaemycins against Gram-positive bacteria, including multi-drug resistant clinical isolates. Our work demonstrates how an accurate in silico analysis of a cryptic BGC can highly facilitate the identification, the structural elucidation, and the bioactivity of its associated specialized metabolites.