Research progress of circular bacteriocin

Abstract:

Bacteriocins are a class of ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria, which endow bacteriocinogenic strains with unique survival advantages. Different from linear bacteriocins, circular bacteriocins have unique N-to-C terminal covalent linkage, and thus they have strong heat tolerance, adaptability to a wide range of pH, as well as certain resistance to protease. Therefore, they show great potential in food antisepsis and antagonization of resistance bacteria. Circular bacteriocins show higher similarity in tertiary structure than in primary structure, laying a basis for the classification. The biosynthesis mechanism of circular bacteriocins is still unclear, whereas the cyclization mechanism is attracting the interest of scholars, given that it can provide scaffolds for the synthesis and the modification of other types of peptide. The antibacterial mechanism of circular bacteriocins is mainly associated with perforation on the cell membrane and the consequential outflow of intracellular substances. With the antibacterial activity similar to or different from antibiotics, they can be potential candidates against the resistance pathogens. In this paper, research on circular bacteriocins was summarized, and the structure-activity relationship, biosynthesis pathway, the mode of action, as well as the application potential of them were highlighted, respectively.