Lactocillin is a thiopeptide antibiotic which is encoded for and produced by biosynthetic genes clusters in the bacteria Lactobacillus gasseri.

[3] Biosynthetic gene clusters are similar to operons in bacteria in that they both code for proteins that function together in a common process.

[citation needed] Lactocillin is made by biosynthetic gene cluster 66 (bgc66) which is located on a plasmid in Lactobacillus gasseri.

[1] bgc66 has many different genes that code for the proteins shown in the table below and perform the indicated function involved in the synthesis of lactocillin.

Lactocillin 1) has a free carboxylic acid at C-terminus, 2) doesn’t undergo any post-translation modifications that require oxygen, and 3) has an indolyl-S-cysteine residue at position 8.

Lactocillin has an empirical formula of C51H45N13O10S7 and has a picture as shown above, as determined using NMR and UV-Vis absorbance profiles.

[1] The presence of these transfer sequences shows us that this plasmid can participate in HGT leading to other bacteria being able to produce lactocillin.

This approach makes sense, as a non-pathogenic bacterium found in the vaginal microbiota might provide a benefit to the host, such as resistance to potential pathogens that commonly infect that area of the body, because the host’s survival is essential for the bacteria’s survival.

[citation needed] Lactocillin was not seen to prevent growth of other bacteria that are known to be common and beneficial to the vaginal microbiome.