Brief Communication abstract
Nature Chemical Biology 1, 23 - 24 (2005)
Published online: 24 May 2005 | doi:10.1038/nchembio709
Structure of the Bacillus subtilis quorum-sensing peptide pheromone ComX
Masahiro Okada1, Isao Sato1, Soo Jeong Cho2, Hidehisa Iwata1, Toshihiko Nishio1, David Dubnau2 & Youji Sakagami1
The ComX pheromone is an extracellular signaling molecule that stimulates natural competence in response to crowding in the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The pheromone is formed by isoprenylation of an inactive precursor peptide, but its precise structure is not known. Here we report the structure of the ComX pheromone, showing that addition of a geranyl group to a tryptophan residue results in the formation of an unusual ring structure.
- Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
- Public Health Research Institute, 225 Warren Street, Newark, New Jersey 07103, USA.
Correspondence to: David Dubnau2 e-mail: dubnau@phri.org
Correspondence to: Youji Sakagami1 e-mail: ysaka@agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp
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