As a phytotoxin, it acts by inhibiting the differentiation of chloroplasts.[2] It accomplishes this by inhibiting DNA gyrase, and thereby preventing the replication of chloroplast DNA.[3] As such it plays a major role in leaf scald disease.
As a DNA gyrase inhibitor, albicindin also has potential therapeutic use as an antibiotic.[4] Its antibiotic properties were discovered in the early 1980s, when the molecule was isolated and purified from cultures of Xanthomonas albilineans.[5] However, the precise structure of the molecule was only identified in 2015.[6] A laboratory synthesis of albicidin has been developed,[1] and research is currently focused on the design and evaluation of synthetic derivatives of albicidin with improved properties.[7][8][9]
^Kerwat, Dennis; Grätz, Stefan; Kretz, Julian; Seidel, Maria; Kunert, Maria; Weston, John B.; Süssmuth, Roderich D. (2016). "Synthesis of Albicidin Derivatives: Assessing the Role of N-terminal Acylation on the Antibacterial Activity". ChemMedChem. 11 (17): 1899–1903. doi:10.1002/cmdc.201600231. PMID27439374. S2CID5009104.
^Grätz, Stefan; Kerwat, Dennis; Kretz, Julian; Von Eckardstein, Leonard; Semsary, Siamak; Seidel, Maria; Kunert, Maria; Weston, John B.; Süssmuth, R. D. (2016). "Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of Albicidin Derivatives with Variations of the Central Cyanoalanine Building Block". ChemMedChem. 11 (14): 1499–1502. doi:10.1002/cmdc.201600163. PMID27245621. S2CID205649206.