Corallorazines from the myxobacterium Corallococcus coralloides.

The myxobacterium Corallococcus coralloides is the producer of the antibiotic compound corallopyronin A, which is currently in preclinical evaluation. To obtain suitable amounts of this antibiotic, the production strain C. coralloides B035 was cultured in large volumes, which in the addition to the isolation of the target molecule facilitates the detection of additional metabolites of this myxobacterial strain (corallorazines A-C). Corallorazine A is a new structural type of dipeptide composed of a dehydroalanine and a glycine moiety that are linked via a semiaminal bond, thus forming a piperazine ring. The latter is further connected via an amide bond to an unusual aliphatic acyl chain.