(A) Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography elution profile of peptides purified from culture supernatant of S. hominis A9 strain. The insert is a radial diffusion activity against S.aureus from the indicated fractions. Molecular mass of fractions 30 and 32 was measured by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) (fig. S4). (B) Amino acid sequence and predicted thioester bonds from the two lantibiotics purified from S. hominis A9. Dha, 2,3-didehydroalanine; Dhb, (Z)-2,3-didehydrobutyrine. (C) Organization of the gene cluster encoding Sh-lantibiotic precursors and lanti-biotic biosynthetic genes in S. hominis A9. (D) List of lantibiotic-related genes, gene locus, and putative functions. (E) Effect of application of Sh-lantibiotics (0.5 nmol) or conditioned medium from S. hominis A9 (50 μl) on survival of S.aureus on pigskin. Data represent means ± SEM of four independent assays. **P < 0.01 by two-tailed independent t test. (F) Dose-response curves for the antimicrobial activity of Sh-lantibiotic-α and Sh-lantibiotic-β against S. hominis A9 strain. Data represent means ± SEM of triplicate assays. m/z, mass/charge ratio.