Scope of Bacteriocins as a Viable Alternative to the Traditional Antibiotics

Abstract

Microbes produce an extradinary array of microbial defense systems. These include broad spectrum low molecular weight classical antibiotics, metabolic byproducts, lytic agents, numerous types of protein exotoxins, defense bacteriophages and bacteriocins. Bacteriocins are defined as biologically active protein moieties with a bactericidal mode of action, which are ribosomally synthesized. They can alter cell membrane integrity and interfere with transcription, translocation or DNA replication. They differ from traditional antibiotics in one critical way that they have relatively narrow killing spectrum and are mostly toxic to bacteria, which are closely related strains. The intrinsic property of bacterial strains has led to studies for their potential use as bio preservatives, therapeutic agents and biocontrol organisms. In this review, some of the aspects of bacteiocinogeny particularly their prevalence in microbial world have been discussed.

A PGPR-Produced Bacteriocin for Sustainable Agriculture: A Review of Thuricin 17 Characteristics and Applications

“…However, a growing number of newly identified bacteriocins lack leader sequences and are active immediately after translation (Fujita et al, 2007). Specific immune proteins, encoded in the genome, are required for expression of bacteriocins, allowing the producer bacterial cell to resist the bacteriocin action (Rameshkumar et al, 2016). Production of bacteriocins and immune proteins is often mediated by quorum-sensing mechanisms, which may also be induced by environmental stressors (Nes and Eijsink, 1999).…”

Engineering circular bacteriocins: structural and functional effects of α-helix exchanges and disulfide introductions in circularin A

“…In particular, bacteriocins are of great interest for their potential use in food preservation by inhibiting the growth of foodborne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria (Verma et al, 2014;Ng et al, 2020), such as Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens and Staphylococccus aureus (Bintsis, 2017). Additionally, there is growing interest in exploring bacteriocins as an alternative to traditional antibiotics, considering the urgent need to combat the rapid development of antibiotic resistance (Cotter et al, 2013;Kayalvizhi, 2016;Benítez-Chao et al, 2021). As an increasing number of bacteriocin PTM enzymes have been characterized, bacteriocin engineering has demonstrated great potential for incorporating certain structural features into target peptides to generate new-to-nature compounds with desired properties.…”