Peptaibiotics

A few years ago, the non-coded amino acids Aib (alpha-aminoisobutyric acid) and Iva (isovaline) were considered to be exceedingly rare in the biosphere. Nowadays, the exploitation of Aib as highly specific marker amino acid for the detection of an abundance of fungal peptides that have been named comprehensively peptaibiotics is well established and coincidentally proves the abundance and ubiquity of the fungal producers in the biosphere.

Peptaibiotics attract much attention owing to their broad range of bioactivities that comprise antimicrobial and insecticidal features, uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria, induction of hypothermia, and neuroleptic effects in rodents, and include also the unique transmembrane-channel forming properties in lipid bilayer membranes.

This book, in reviews as well as original contributions, will boost the interest in peptaibiotics, and the methods of synthesis outlined are expected to pave the way for the target-oriented search and characterization of a myriad of new structures and bioactivities waiting to be explored by the scientific community.