Thiocillin I and its congeners are thiopeptide antibiotics isolated from Bacillus cereus. This substance has become of special significance in recent times in that biosynthetic investigations have enabled the production of analogues displaying useful biological properties through the genetic manipulation of producing organisms. Such efforts could lead to novel anti-infective agents with improved therapeutic properties, thereby alleviating the ongoing “antibiotic crisis.”

This work unequivocally defines the full structure (constitution and configuration) of the natural product as 1.

The article is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and is free to access.