2,5-Diketopiperazines produced by Bacillus pumilus during bacteriolysis of Arthrobacter citreus.

We report the detection by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analyses of the secreted 2,5-diketopiperazines (DKPs) cyclo(-Ala-Pro), cyclo(-Gly-Pro), cyclo(-Val-Pro), cyclo(-Ile-Pro), cyclo(-Leu-Pro), cyclo(-Pro-Pro), cyclo(-HyP-Pro), cyclo(-Met-Pro), and cyclo(-Phe-Pro) produced by Bacillus pumilus. The study focuses on a marine isolate and a laboratory test strain of B. pumilus with capabilities to lyse pregrown living cell lawns of different bacterial species, among them Arthrobacter citreus. Chromatographic methods were used to analyze induced bioactive compounds. At least 13 different DKPs are produced by B. pumilus. Both strains respond with an increased production of the DKPs cyclo(-Gly-Pro), cyclo(-Ala-Pro), and cyclo(-Val-Pro) to the presence of pasteurized A. citreus cells after 4 h in a nutrient-poor liquid medium. In agar diffusion assays, these DKPs did not cause lysis zones in living cell lawns, but they did inhibit further growth of several pregrown test bacteria in microplates even at concentrations as low as 1 μg ml(-1). Antibiotic substances produced by B. pumilus after 20 h of cultivation in a special lysis medium showed lytic activity in cell-free extracts of B. pumilus culture supernatants.