a, VRE was inoculated in media conditioned with BP SCSK or BP control culture protein precipitate fractions (n = 8 biologically independent samples from two independent experiments), and monitored for growth. b, c, BP SCSK was whole-genome sequenced, assembled and annotated. b, Schematic comparing the lantibiotic operon discovered in the genome of BP SCSK to the nisA operon from L. lactis. Gene functions are based on the characterization of homologous genes in the nis operon. c, Amino acid sequence alignment comparing the BP SCSK lantibiotic precursor (LanA 1 –LanA 4 ) and the nisin-A precursor (NisA). Sequence features are based on the characterization of nisin. d, The molecular formula for the mature, post-translationally modified BP SCSK LanA 1 –LanA 4 lantibiotic with a predicted mass of 3152.45 Da. Abu, alpha-aminobutyric acid; Dha, dehydroalanine;Dhb, dehydrobutyrine. e, Media conditioned with BP SCSK or BP control culture protein precipitates, or commercial nisin-A, were incubated with proteinase K for 3 h at 37 °C, boiled at 100 °C, or left untreated. The treated protein precipitate (n = 8 biologically independent samples from four independent experiments) was serially diluted and VRE was inoculated and cultured for 24 h. The MIC value was the highest mean dilution in which VRE inhibition was observed. f, Proteins were precipitated from BP SCSK or BP control , or nisin-A spiked cultures and applied to a SP sepharose column. Each fraction was serially diluted and VRE was inoculated and cultured for 24 h to determine the MIC (n = 4 biologically independent samples from four independent experiments). VRE (ATCC 700221) was used in experiments in a, e and f. ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test for comparisons with a negative control. Data are mean ± s.d. (a, f) or mean values (e).