The calcium-dependent antibiotics (CDAs) are an important emerging class of antibiotics. The crystal structure of the CDA laspartomycin C in complex with calcium and the ligand geranyl-phosphate at a resolution of 1.28 Å is reported. This is the first crystal structure of a CDA bound to its bacterial target. The structure is also the first to be reported for an antibiotic that binds the essential bacterial phospholipid undecaprenyl phosphate (C55 -P). These structural insights are of great value in the design of antibiotics capable of exploiting this unique bacterial target.
Keywords: C55-P; bacterial cell wall; calcium-dependent antibiotics; crystal structure; laspartomycin c.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.