This invention relates to polypeptide antibiotics, including materials and methods related thereto, based upon the observation that bacteriophage elaborate proteins that cause host cell lysis by interfering with specific steps in cell wall biosynthesis. Examples of antibiotics based upon this invention include the bacteriophage φX174 gene E product and structurally and/or functionally related polypeptide and small protein antibiotics that interact with MraY, and the bacteriophage Qβ gene A
2
product and structurally and/or functionally related polypeptide and small protein antibiotics that interact with MurA. This leads to the general model for obtaining new polypeptide antibiotics by using genetic approaches based on these findings to find polypeptide sequences which cause bacterial cell lysis.
本发明涉及
多肽类抗生素,包括与之相关的材料和方法,其依据是观察到噬菌体通过干扰细胞壁
生物合成的特定步骤,精心制作出能导致宿主细胞裂解的蛋白质。基于本发明的抗生素实例包括噬菌体 φX174
基因 E 产物和在结构上和/或功能上与 MraY 相互作用的
多肽和小蛋白抗生素,以及噬菌体 Qβ
基因 A
2
产物以及结构和/或功能上相关的
多肽和与 MurA 相互作用的小蛋白抗生素。根据这些发现,我们提出了利用
基因方法获得新的
多肽抗生素的一般模式,以寻找能导致细菌细胞裂解的
多肽序列。