Abstract
SEVERAL papers have recently appeared describing substances produced by Bacillus subtilis which exhibit antifungal activity with only incidental antibacterial action. Though the chemical and physical properties of these substances were not thoroughly investigated, it appears that some of them are similar and can be grouped together. Table 1 summarizes the known properties of nine of these antifungal antibiotics. It shows that whenever tested, these substances proved to be extracellular, acidic, non-dialysable and heat-stable polypeptides, not affected by pepsin and trypsin. They are soluble in polar, and insoluble in non-polar, organic solvents. Peptides I, II and III have an acid equivalent weight in the neighbourhood of 1,000, and an acid dissociation constant of about pK = 5.5 ; as acidic polypeptides, they are soluble in alkali and insoluble in water and in dilute acids. Similar solubility properties were found for other substances of this group, as given in Table 1.
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SHARON, N., PINSKY, A., TURNER-GRAFF, R. et al. Classification of the Antifungal Antibiotics from Bacillus subtilis . Nature 174, 1190–1191 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/1741190a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1741190a0
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