Streptococcus rattus strain BHT is a species representative and strong bacteriocin producer. Here we report that S. rattus BHT
produces two quite different types of bacteriocin activity, named BHT-A and BHT-B. The two bacteriocins were purified and analysed
for activity and by MALDI-TOF mass spectrophotometry. BHT-A was found to be a variant of the two-component lantibiotic,
Smb. BHT-B is a non-modified 5195 Da peptide with some similarity to the tryptophan-rich Staphylococcus aureus bacteriocin,
aureocin A53. Six S. rattus and two S. mutans strains were found to contain both the BHT-A and BHT-B genetic loci.
2005 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved