Rationally Improving Doramectin Production in Industrial Strains.

Avermectins (AVMs), a family of 16-membered macrocyclic macrolides produced by , have been the most successful microbial natural antiparasitic agents in recent decades. Doramectin, an AVM derivative produced by mutants through cyclohexanecarboxylic acid (CHC) feeding, was commercialized as a veterinary antiparasitic drug by Pfizer Inc. Our previous results show that the production of avermectin and actinorhodin was affected by several other polyketide biosynthetic gene clusters in and , respectively.

Characterization of the chromosomal integration of Saccharopolyspora plasmid pCM32 and its application to improve production of spinosyn in Saccharopolyspora spinosa.

Saccharopolyspora spinosa produces tetra-cyclic macrolide spinosyns, a group of highly efficient pesticidal agents. However, this species lacks efficient vectors for genetic manipulation. In this study, the circular plasmid pCM32 was newly isolated from Saccharopolyspora endophytica YIM 61095.

Recombinational cloning of the antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters in linear plasmid SCP1 of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).

The model organism Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) harbors a 356-kb linear plasmid, SCP1. We report here development of a recombinational cloning method for deleting large segment from one telomere of SCP1 followed by replacing with the telomere of pSLA2 and sequentially inserting with the overlapping cosmids in vivo. The procedure depends on homologous recombination coupled with cleavage at telomere termini by telomere terminal protein.

Differential regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis by DraR-K, a novel two-component system in Streptomyces coelicolor.

A novel two-component system (TCS) designated as DraR-K (sco3063/sco3062) was identified to be involved in differential regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor. The S. coelicolor mutants with deletion of either or both of draR and draK exhibited significantly reduced actinorhodin (ACT) but increased undecylprodigiosin (RED) production on minimal medium (MM) supplemented separately with high concentration of different nitrogen sources.

An orphan histidine kinase, OhkA, regulates both secondary metabolism and morphological differentiation in Streptomyces coelicolor.

We report here the physiological and genetic characterization of an orphan histidine kinase (HK) (OhkA, SCO1596) in Streptomyces coelicolor and its homolog (OhkAsav, SAV_6741) in Streptomyces avermitilis. The physiological analysis showed that the ohkA mutant of S. coelicolor exhibits impaired aerial mycelium formation and sporulation and overproduction of multiple antibiotics on mannitol-soy flour (MS) medium, especially actinorhodin (ACT) and calcium-dependent antibiotic (CDA), and disruption of ohkAsav in S.

Determination of the trichothecene mycotoxin chemotypes and associated geographical distribution and phylogenetic species of the Fusarium graminearum clade from China.

A large number of isolates from the Fusarium graminearum clade representing all regions in China with a known history of Fusarium head blight (FHB) epidemics in wheat were assayed using PCR to ascertain their trichothecene mycotoxin chemotypes and associated phylogenetic species and geographical distribution. Of the 299 isolates assayed, 231 are from F. asiaticum species lineage 6, which produce deoxynivalenol and 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol (3-AcDON); deoxynivalenol and 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15-AcDON); and nivalenol and 4-acetylnivalenol (NIV) mycotoxins, with 3-AcDON being the predominant chemotype.