RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF TELEOCIDINS IN FERMENTATION BROTH USING HPLC PHOTODIODE ARRAY AND LC MS METHODOLOGY

During the course of screening for inhibitors of phorbol ester binding to protein kinase C, several actinomycete cultures were discovered that produce active metabolites. HPLC coupled to photodiode array and LC/MS techniques were applied to broth extracts to identify the presence of indolactams belonging to the teleocidin family. Various members of this family were rapidly identified from crude broth extracts using a combination of these spectroanalytical procedures. An analytical HPLC system was developed to optimize separation of teleocidin A and B analogues directly from ethyl acetate extracts of whole broth cultures. This technique allowed us to identify a novel homologue of pendolmycin and demonstrated the utility of photodiode array HPLC coupled with LC/MS as an initial analytical tool in the analyses of these secondary metabolites produced by soil microorganisms.