Myxobacteria are unique gram-negative bacteria characterized by the gliding and fruiting body forming nature. Myxobacteria especially attract many researchers, since they have many possibilities of producing undiscovered bioactive substances. Recently new antobiotics such as myxin, inhibitoty lipid-factors, anbruticin, G1499-2, myxocidins, myxothiazol, pyrrolntrin, antibiotic TA, myxovirescins, myxovalargins, corallopyronins were reported to be produced by these organisms.
Isolation and purification of myxobacteria from nature, however, are very difficult due to their complicated life cycle.
In our search for the bioactive metabolites from myxobacteria, strain YH667, belonging to the genus Myxococcus, was found to produce antimicrobial compound. The producing strain, Myxococcus sp. YH667, was isolated from a soil sample collected at Je-ju island in Korea. The organic extracts from the culture broth and cell mass were prepared by solvent partitioning. Guided by the results of antimicrobial test and ¹H-NMR analysis, the moderately polar fractions were separated by silica, ODS, and sephadex LH-20 column chromatography followed by ODS HPLC to yield compound 1 as a colorless oil. The structure of compound 1 was determined as myxovirescin C₁ using combined spectroscopic methods and by comparison with reference data. Compound 1(Myxovirescin C₁) possessed high activity against Escherichia coli, and weak activity against Staphylococcus aureus.