Virginiamycin is a streptogramin, and a mixture of Virginiamycin M1 and Virginiamycin S1. The commercial mixture is 75 % Virginiamycin M1 and 25 % Virginiamycin S1, along with less abundant S analogs. The mixture can be used to reduce contaminating bacteria during yeast fermentation for bioethanol production.
Virginiamycin is soluble in DMSO and DMF.
| Mechanism of Action | Virginiamycin inhibits protein synthesis, targeting the 50S ribosome and inducing a conformational change at the peptidyl transferase center. Protein synthesis is inhibited in both actively growing and static bacterial cells. |
| Microbiology Applications | Virginiamycin is used in bioproduction, specifically to reduce contaminating bacteria when fermenting yeast for bioethanol production. |
| Molecular Formula | C28H35N3O7 (for M1), C43H49N7O10 (for S1) |
| References |
Bischoff KM, Liu S, Leathers TD, Worthington RE and Rich JO (2008) Modeling bacterial contamination of fuel ethanol fermentation. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 103(1):117-122 Crooy P and De Neys RJ (1972) Virginiamycin: nomenclature. Antibiot. 25:371 Ogata K et al (1978) A new species of Streptomyces producing virginiamycin family antibiotics. J. Antibiot. 31: 1313 Parfait R and Cocito C (1980) Lasting damage to bacterial ribosomes by reversibly bound virginiamycin M. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77(9):5492-5496 Rich JO et al (2011) Rapid evaluation of the antibiotic susceptibility of fuel ethanol contaminant biofilms. Bioresour. Technol. 102 (2):1124-1130 |
