5S clavam biosynthetic genes are located in both the clavam and paralog gene clusters in Streptomyces clavuligerus.

The Streptomyces clavuligerus clavam gene cluster was examined to identify genes specifically involved in 5S clavam biosynthesis. A reduction/loss of 5S clavam production was seen in cvm2 and cvm5 gene mutants, and a clavam metabolite not previously observed, 2-carboxymethylideneclavam, accumulated in the cvm5 mutant. Disruption of additional genes from the region of the clavam cluster did not have any effect on 5S clavam production.

Exploiting nucleotidylyltransferases to prepare sugar nucleotides.

[reaction: see text] Enzymatic approaches to prepare sugar nucleotides are gaining in importance and offer several advantages over chemical synthesis including high yields and stereospecificity. We report the cloning, expression, and purification of two new wild-type thymidylyltransferases and observed catalysis with a wide variety of substrates. Significant product inhibition was not observed with the enzymes studied over a 24 h period, enabling the efficient preparation of 15 sugar nucleotides, clearly demonstrating the synthetic utility of these biocatalysts.