N-Methyl and peptoid scans of an autoinducing peptide reveal new structural features required for inhibition and activation of AgrC quorum sensing receptors in Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

We report the first N-methyl and peptoid residue scans of a full-length autoinducing peptide (AIP), AIP-III, used by Staphylococcus aureus for quorum sensing (QS). Biological evaluation of these AIP-III analogues uncovered new features of the AIP-III scaffold that can be tuned to develop chemical probes of QS in all four groups of S. aureus (I–IV).