What kind of research do we do?
The Gram-positive soil bacteria Streptomyces davawensis (Fig. 1) and Streptomyces cinnabarinus (Fig. 2) are the only organisms known to produce the vitamin analog roseoflavin. We study the biosynthesis of roseoflavin, its molecular mechanism of action and the resistance mechanism of the producer cells in order to pave the way for the structured analysis of other vitamin analogs yet to be discovered.
Notably, roseoflavin is active against a variety of pathogens e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Streptococcus pyogenes, Plasmodium falciparum and others.
The following pictures and the text show what we know about roseoflavin (until now) and why we are interested in this unique compound. Please check our publications which of course provide you with more detailed information with regard to roseoflavin. These reviews are a starting point.
Pedrolli DB, Jankowitsch F, Schwarz J, Langer S, Nakanishi S, Frei E, Mack M. 2013. Riboflavin analogs as antiinfectives: occurrence, mode of action, metabolism and resistance. Curr Pharm Des, 19(14):2552-60.
Pedrolli DB, Mack M. 2014. Bacterial flavin mononucleotide riboswitches as targets for flavin analogs. Methods Mol Biol, 1103:165-76
The most important problem with regard to roseoflavin, however, has not yet been solved. What is the function of this antibiotic in its natural habitat (the soil)? If you are interested in contributing to solve this problem, please get in contact with Matthias Mack.