Identification of a gene cluster encoding meilingmycin biosynthesis among multiple polyketide synthase contigs isolated from Streptomyces nanchangensis NS3226

Polyketide pesticides from actinomycetes

Natural product derived pesticides have increased in popularity worldwide because of their high efficacy, eco-friendly nature and favorable safety profile. The development of polyketide pesticides from actinomycetes reflects this increase in popularity in the past decades. These pesticides, which include avermectins, spinosyns, polynactins, tetramycin and their analogues, have been successfully applied in crop protection. Moreover, the advance of biotechnology has led to continuous improvement in the discovery and production processes. In this review, we summarize these polyketide pesticides, their activities and provide insight into their development. We also discuss engineering strategies and the current status of industrial production for these pesticides. Given that actinomycetes are known to produce a wide range of bioactive secondary metabolites, the description of pesticide development and high yield strain improvement presented herein will facilitate further development of these valuable polyketide pesticides from actinomycetes.

Improvement of Nemadectin Production by Overexpressing the Regulatory Gene nemR and Nemadectin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Streptomyces Cyaneogriseus

Nemadectin, a 16-member macrocyclic lactone antiparasitic antibiotic, is produced by Streptomyces cyaneogriseus subspecies noncyanogenus. Moxidectin, a C-23 oximate derivative of nemadectin, is widely used as a pesticide due to its broad-spectrum, highly efficient, and safe anthelmintic activity. NemR, a LAL family regulator, is encoded by nemR and is involved in nemadectin biosynthesis in S. cyaneogriseus. In this report, gene disruption and complementation experiments showed that nemR plays a positive role in the biosynthesis of nemadectin. The transcription level of nemadectin biosynthetic genes in the nemR knockout strain was significantly decreased compared with those in the wild-type strain MOX-101. However, overexpression of nemR under the control of native or strong constitutive promoters resulted in the opposite, increasing the production of nemadectin by 56.5 or 73.5%, respectively, when compared with MOX-101. In addition, the gene cluster of nemadectin biosynthesis was further cloned and overexpressed using a CRISPR method, which significantly increase nemadectin yield by 108.6% (509 mg/L) when compared with MOX-101.

Streptomyces avermitilis industrial strain as cell factory for Ivermectin B1a production

Ivermectin, a kind of valuable derivatives of Avermectin, is distinct from Avermectin due to the saturated bond at C22-C23 position. Combinatorial biosynthesis of Ivermectins based on Avermectins biosynthetic gene cluster (ave) has been achieved recently, while the establishment of an Ivermectin homogeneous component producing strain is challenging because of the limited compatibility between the native and heterologous polyketide synthase (PKS) domains. In this study, the PKS module 2 Dehydratase (DH)-Enoylreductase (ER)-Ketoreductase (KR) domain set of Meilingmycin, which is another naturally occurring homologue of Avermectin, was employed to substitute the DH-KR domains of Avermectins PKS module 2 to generate an Ivermectin biosynthetic gene cluster (ive). Ivermectins B1a and A1a were heterologously biosynthesized in a classic actinomyces host Streptomyces lividans. The Avermectin B1a high-producing strain S. avermitilis 3-115 was genetically engineered to give an artificial host cell and Ivermectin B1a single component was effectively produced with a production of 1.25 ± 0.14 g/L.

Differential anti-microbial secondary metabolites in different ESKAPE pathogens explain their adaptation in the hospital setup

Nosocomial infections are caused by ESKAPE (E. faecium, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, and E. cloacae) pathogens, and their co-existence is associated with their ability to survive in the hospital setup. They may produce molecules, which helps in the better survival of one ESKAPE pathogens over other. We have identified all secondary metabolite gene clusters in six ESKAPE pathogens and predicted antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties of their product secondary metabolites. To validate our model, we have taken the secondary metabolites of ESKAPE pathogens and studied their interaction with diguanylate cyclase (involved in quorum sensing) and biofilm-associated protein (involved in biofilm formation) of Acinetobacter baumannii. Results suggest the presence of differential secondary metabolites in all ESKAPE pathogens with only three common non-antimicrobial secondary metabolites. Out of twenty-three antimicrobial secondary metabolites, TP-1161, nosiheptide and meilingmycin, showed the best antimicrobial activity and nineteen showed high anti-biofilm activity. Interaction study showed that secondary metabolites produced by other ESKAPE pathogens (non-Acinetobacter) have very good interaction with diguanylate cyclase and biofilm-associated protein of A. baumannii. This concludes that better survival of these ESKAPE pathogens in hospital setup can be correlated with differential production of antimicrobial secondary metabolites. The present study also investigates the molecular mechanism of the competition of different pathogens living in similar hospital setup (similar habitat). Therefore, the present study will initiate research that might lead to the discovery of antibiotics from one ESKAPE pathogen that controls the infection of other ESKAPE pathogens or other pathogens.

Cytochromes P450 for natural product biosynthesis in Streptomyces: sequence, structure, and function

Covering: up to January 2017Cytochrome P450 enzymes (P450s) are some of the most exquisite and versatile biocatalysts found in nature. In addition to their well-known roles in steroid biosynthesis and drug metabolism in humans, P450s are key players in natural product biosynthetic pathways. Natural products, the most chemically and structurally diverse small molecules known, require an extensive collection of P450s to accept and functionalize their unique scaffolds. In this review, we survey the current catalytic landscape of P450s within the Streptomyces genus, one of the most prolific producers of natural products, and comprehensively summarize the functionally characterized P450s from Streptomyces. A sequence similarity network of >8500 P450s revealed insights into the sequence-function relationships of these oxygen-dependent metalloenzymes. Although only ∼2.4% and <0.4% of streptomycete P450s have been functionally and structurally characterized, respectively, the study of streptomycete P450s involved in the biosynthesis of natural products has revealed their diverse roles in nature, expanded their catalytic repertoire, created structural and mechanistic paradigms, and exposed their potential for biomedical and biotechnological applications. Continued study of these remarkable enzymes will undoubtedly expose their true complement of chemical and biological capabilities.

Biologically active secondary metabolites from Actinomycetes

Secondary metabolites obtained from Actinomycetales provide a potential source of many novel compounds with antibacterial, antitumour, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic and other properties. The majority of these compounds are widely used as medicines for combating multidrug-resistant Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. Members of the genus Streptomyces are profile producers of previously-known secondary metabolites. Actinomycetes have been isolated from terrestrial soils, from the rhizospheres of plant roots, and recently from marine sediments. This review demonstrates the diversity of secondary metabolites produced by actinomycete strains with respect to their chemical structure, biological activity and origin. On the basis of this diversity, this review concludes that the discovery of new bioactive compounds will continue to pose a great challenge for scientists.

Characterization of Streptomyces padanus JAU4234, a producer of actinomycin X₂, fungichromin, and a new polyene macrolide antibiotic

Strain JAU4234, identified as Streptomyces padanus, was isolated from soil collected in Jiangxi Province, China. It produced actinomycin X2, fungichromin, and a new polyene macrolide compound with antifungal activity, antifungalmycin 702. Antifungalmycin 702 had good general antifungal activity and may have potential future agricultural and/or clinical applications.

Toward steadfast growth of antibiotic research in China: from natural products to engineered biosynthesis

Antibiotics are widely used for clinical treatment and preventing or curing diseases in agriculture. Cloning and studies of their biosynthetic gene clusters are vital for yield enhancement and engineering new derivatives with new and prominent activities. In recent years, research in this aspect is impressively active in China. This article reviews biosynthetic progress on 28 antibiotics, including polyketides, nonribosomal peptides, hybrid polyketide-nonribosomal peptides, peptidyl nucleoside, nucleoside, and others. Their biosynthetic mechanisms were disclosed, and their derivatives with new structures/activities were obtained by gene inactivation, mutasynthesis and combinatorial biosynthesis.

5-ketoreductase from Streptomyces bingchengensis: overexpression and preliminary characterization

To elucidate the biotransformation from 5-oxomilbemycins A(3) and A(4) to milbemycins A(3) and A(4) in Streptomyces bingchengensis, the C5-ketoreductase gene (milF) was cloned using PCR with the specific primer designed from homologous nucleotide sequences. The C5-ketoreductase (MilF) was heterologously expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) as a His-tagged fusion protein. The characterization and biotransformation function of purified MilF was verified by in vitro enzyme assay. MilF is an NADPH-dependent reductase. The biotransformation products, analyzed by LC-APCI/MS, were identified as milbemycin A(3) and milbemycin A(4). MilF is thus present in Streptomyces bingchengensis and can transform 5-oxomilbemycins A(3) and A(4) to milbemycins A(3) and A(4). These findings are significant for understanding the biosynthetic pathway of milbemycins in Streptomyces bingchengensis and pave the way to obtain a producer strain of 5-oxomilbemycins directly by targeted milF disruption.

Cloning of separate meilingmycin biosynthesis gene clusters by use of acyltransferase-ketoreductase didomain PCR amplification

Five meilingmycins, A to E, with A as the major component, were isolated from Streptomyces nanchangensis NS3226. Through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) characterization, meilingmycins A to E proved to be identical to reported milbemycins alpha11, alpha13, alpha14, beta1, and beta9, respectively. Sequencing of a previously cloned 103-kb region identified three modular type I polyketide synthase genes putatively encoding the last 11 elongation steps, three modification proteins, and one transcriptional regulatory protein for meilingmycin biosynthesis. However, the expected loading module and the first two elongation modules were missing. In meilingmycin, the presence of a methyl group at C-24 and a hydroxyl group at C-25 suggests that the elongation module 1 contains a methylmalonyl-coenzyme A (CoA)-specific acyltransferase (ATp) domain and a ketoreductase (KR) domain. Based on the conserved motifs of the ATp and KR domains, a pair of primers was designed for PCR amplification, and a 1.40-kb expected fragment was amplified, whose sequence shows significant homology with the elongation module 1 of the aveA1-encoded enzyme AVES1. A polyketide synthase (PKS) gene encoding one loading and two elongation modules, with a downstream C-5-O-methyltransferase gene, meiD, was subsequently localized 55 kb apart from the previously sequenced region, and its deletion abolishes meilingmycin production. A series of deletions within the 55-kb intercluster region rules out its involvement in meilingmycin biosynthesis. Furthermore, gene deletion of meiD eliminates meilingmycins D and E, with methyls at C-5. Our work provides a more specific strategy for the cloning of modular type I PKS gene clusters. The cloning of the meilingmycin gene clusters paves the way for its pathway engineering.

Antibiotic biosynthetic pathways and pathway engineering--a growing research field in China

This review describes the recent research activities in China in relation to studies on antibiotic biosynthetic pathways and pathway engineering in actinomycetes. 75 references are cited.