Isolation and structure determination of a new cytotoxic peptide, curacozole, from Streptomyces curacoi based on genome mining.

Using genome mining, a new cytotoxic peptide named curacozole was isolated from Streptomyces curacoi. Through ESI-MS and NMR analyses, curacozole was determined to be a macrocyclic peptide containing two isoleucine, two thiazole and three oxazole moieties. Curacozole exhibited potent cytotoxic activity against HCT116 and HOS cancer cells. The proposed biosynthetic gene cluster of curacozole was identified and compared with that of the related compound YM-216391.