polR, a pathway-specific transcriptional regulatory gene, positively controls polyoxin biosynthesis in Streptomyces cacaoi subsp. asoensis

Biosyntheses of azetidine-containing natural products

Azetidine is a four-membered polar heterocycle including a basic secondary amine, and is characterized by its high ring-strain energy, strong molecular rigidity and satisfactory stability. As a result, azetidine exhibits great challenges in its chemical synthesis and biosynthesis, which may explain the limited number of azetidine-containing natural products uncovered to date. In particular, the biosynthetic mechanisms of naturally occurring azetidines are poorly understood. Only some of them have been intensively investigated and few reviews have been published for the summarization of azetidine biosynthesis. In this review, we provide a comprehensive description of the biosyntheses of all the azetidine-containing natural products, especially the biosyntheses of azetidine moieties. We hope that this review will draw much attention to the biosynthetic research of the largely unexplored azetidine moieties as well as the discovery of novel azetidine-containing natural products in the near future.

Comparative and Functional Analyses Reveal Conserved and Variable Regulatory Systems That Control Lasalocid Biosynthesis in Different Streptomyces Species

Lasalocid, a representative polyether ionophore, has been successfully applied in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry and also displays promising potential for cancer therapy. Nevertheless, the regulatory system governing lasalocid biosynthesis remains obscure. Here, we identified two conserved (lodR2 and lodR3) and one variable (lodR1, found only in Streptomyces sp. strain FXJ1.172) putative regulatory genes through a comparison of the lasalocid biosynthetic gene cluster (lod) from Streptomyces sp. FXJ1.172 with those (las and lsd) from Streptomyces lasalocidi. Gene disruption experiments demonstrated that both lodR1 and lodR3 positively regulate lasalocid biosynthesis in Streptomyces sp. FXJ1.172, while lodR2 plays a negative regulatory role. To unravel the regulatory mechanism, transcriptional analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) along with footprinting experiments were performed. The results revealed that LodR1 and LodR2 could bind to the intergenic regions of lodR1-lodAB and lodR2-lodED, respectively, thereby repressing the transcription of the lodAB and lodED operons, respectively. The repression of lodAB-lodC by LodR1 likely boosts lasalocid biosynthesis. Furthermore, LodR2 and LodE constitute a repressor-activator system that senses changes in intracellular lasalocid concentrations and coordinates its biosynthesis. LodR3 could directly activate the transcription of key structural genes. Comparative and parallel functional analyses of the homologous genes in S. lasalocidi ATCC 31180T confirmed the conserved roles of lodR2, lodE, and lodR3 in controlling lasalocid biosynthesis. Intriguingly, the variable gene locus lodR1-lodC from Streptomyces sp. FXJ1.172 seems functionally conserved when introduced into S. lasalocidi ATCC 31180T. Overall, our findings demonstrate that lasalocid biosynthesis is tightly controlled by both conserved and variable regulators, providing valuable guidance for further improving lasalocid production. IMPORTANCE Compared to its elaborated biosynthetic pathway, the regulation of lasalocid biosynthesis remains obscure. Here, we characterize the roles of regulatory genes in lasalocid biosynthetic gene clusters of two distinct Streptomyces species and identify a conserved repressor-activator system, LodR2-LodE, which could sense changes in the concentration of lasalocid and coordinate its biosynthesis with self-resistance. Furthermore, in parallel, we verify that the regulatory system identified in a new Streptomyces isolate is valid in the industrial lasalocid producer and thus applicable for the construction of high-yield strains. These findings deepen our understanding of regulatory mechanisms involved in the production of polyether ionophores and provide novel clues for the rational design of industrial strains for scaled-up production.

MilR3, a unique SARP family pleiotropic regulator in Streptomyces bingchenggensis

Streptomyces bingchenggensis is the main industrial producer of milbemycins, which are a group of 16-membered macrocylic lactones with excellent insecticidal activities. In the past several decades, scientists have made great efforts to solve its low productivity. However, a lack of understanding of the regulatory network of milbemycin biosynthesis limited the development of high-producing strains using a regulatory rewiring strategy. SARPs (Streptomyces Antibiotic Regulatory Proteins) family regulators are widely distributed and play key roles in regulating antibiotics production in actinobacteria. In this paper, MilR3 (encoded by sbi_06842) has been screened out for significantly affecting milbemycin production from all the 19 putative SARP family regulators in S. bingchenggensis with the DNase-deactivated Cpf1-based integrative CRISPRi system. Interestingly, milR3 is about 7 Mb away from milbemycin biosynthetic gene cluster and adjacent to a putative type II PKS (the core minimal PKS encoding genes are sbi_06843, sbi_06844, sbi_06845 and sbi_06846) gene cluster, which was proved to be responsible for producing a yellow pigment. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis proved that MilR3 positively affected the transcription of specific genes within milbemycin BGC and those from the type II PKS gene cluster. Unlike previous "small" SARP family regulators that played pathway-specific roles, MilR3 was probably a unique SARP family regulator and played a pleotropic role. MilR3 was an upper level regulator in the MilR3-MilR regulatory cascade. This study first illustrated the co-regulatory role of this unique SARP regulator. This greatly enriches our understanding of SARPs and lay a solid foundation for milbemycin yield enhancement in the near future.

Characterization of Pathway-Specific Regulator NigR for High Yield Production of Nigericin in Streptomyces malaysiensis F913

Nigericin is a polyether antibiotic with potent antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial and anticancer activity. NigR, the only regulator in the nigericin biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces malaysiensis F913, was identified as a SARP family regulator. Disruption of nigR abolished nigericin biosynthesis, while complementation of nigR restored nigericin production, suggesting that NigR is an essential positive regulator for nigericin biosynthesis. Overexpression of nigR in Streptomyces malaysiensis led to significant increase in nigericin production compared to the wild-type strain. Nigericin production in the overexpression strain was found to reach 0.56 g/L, which may be the highest nigericin titer reported to date. Transcriptional analysis suggested that nigR is required for the transcription of structural genes in the nig gene cluster; quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of structural genes was upregulated in the nigR overexpression strain. Our study suggested that NigR acts in a positive manner to modulate nigericin production by activating transcription of structural genes and provides an effective strategy for scaling up nigericin production.

Stepwise increase of thaxtomins production in Streptomyces albidoflavus J1074 through combinatorial metabolic engineering

Herbicide-resistance in weeds has become a serious threat to agriculture across the world. Thus, there is an urgent need for the discovery and development of herbicides with new modes of action. Thaxtomin phytotoxins are a group of nitrated diketopiperazines produced by potato common scab-causing phytopathogen Streptomyces scabies and other actinobacterial pathogens. They are generally considered to function as inhibitors of cellulose synthesis in plants, and thus have great potential to be used as natural herbicides. Generation of an overproducing strain is crucial for the scale-up production of thaxtomins and their wide use in agriculture. In the present study, we employed a stepwise strategy by combining heterologous expression, repressor deletion, activator overexpression, and optimization of fermentation media for high-level production of thaxtomins. The maximum yield of 728 mg/L thaxtomins was achieved with engineered Streptomyces albidoflavus J1074 strains in shake-flask cultures, and it was approximately 36-fold higher than S. albidoflavus J1074 carrying the unmodified cluster. Moreover, the yield of thaxtomins could reach 1973 mg/L when the engineered strain was cultivated in a small-scale stirred-tank bioreactor. This is the highest titer reported to date, representing a significant leap forward for the scale-up production of thaxtomins. Our study presents a robust, easy-to-use system that will be broadly useful for improving titers of bioactive compounds in many Streptomyces species.

Synthetic Cellobiose-Inducible Regulatory Systems Allow Tight and Dynamic Controls of Gene Expression in Streptomyces

Precise control of microbial gene expression is crucial for synthetic biotechnological applications. This is particularly true for the bacterial genus Streptomyces, major producers of diverse natural products including many antibiotics. Although a plethora of genetic tools have been developed for Streptomyces, there is still an urgent need for effective gene induction systems. We herein created two novel cellobiose-inducible regulatory systems referred to as Cel-RS1 and Cel-RS2. The regulatory systems are based upon the well-characterized repressor/operator pair CebR/cebO from Streptomyces scabies and the well-defined constitutive kasO* promoter. Both Cel-RS1 and Cel-RS2 exhibit a high level of induced reporter activity and virtually no leaky expression in three model Streptomyces species, which are commonly used as surrogate hosts for expression of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters. Cel-RS2 has been proven successful for programmable control of gene expression and controllable production of specialized metabolites in multiple Streptomyces species. The strategy can be used to expand the toolkit of inducible regulatory systems that will be broadly applicable to various Streptomyces.

A Regulator Based "Semi-Targeted" Approach to Activate Silent Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

By culturing microorganisms under standard laboratory conditions, most biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are not expressed, and thus, the products are not produced. To explore this biosynthetic potential, we developed a novel "semi-targeted" approach focusing on activating "silent" BGCs by concurrently introducing a group of regulator genes into streptomycetes of the Tübingen strain collection. We constructed integrative plasmids containing two classes of regulatory genes under the control of the constitutive promoter ermE*p (cluster situated regulators (CSR) and Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory proteins (SARPs)). These plasmids were introduced into Streptomyces sp. TÜ17, Streptomyces sp. TÜ10 and Streptomyces sp. TÜ102. Introduction of the CSRs-plasmid into strain S. sp. TÜ17 activated the production of mayamycin A. By using the individual regulator genes, we proved that Aur1P, was responsible for the activation. In strain S. sp. TÜ102, the introduction of the SARP-plasmid triggered the production of a chartreusin-like compound. Insertion of the CSRs-plasmid into strain S. sp. TÜ10 resulted in activating the warkmycin-BGC. In both recombinants, activation of the BGCs was only possible through the simultaneous expression of aur1PR3 and griR in S. sp. TÜ102 and aur1P and pntR in of S. sp. TÜ10.

Identification and characterization of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleoside antibiotics

Covering: up to September 2020 Hundreds of nucleoside-based natural products have been isolated from various microorganisms, several of which have been utilized in agriculture as pesticides and herbicides, in medicine as therapeutics for cancer and infectious disease, and as molecular probes to study biological processes. Natural products consisting of structural modifications of each of the canonical nucleosides have been discovered, ranging from simple modifications such as single-step alkylations or acylations to highly elaborate modifications that dramatically alter the nucleoside scaffold and require multiple enzyme-catalyzed reactions. A vast amount of genomic information has been uncovered the past two decades, which has subsequently allowed the first opportunity to interrogate the chemically intriguing enzymatic transformations for the latter type of modifications. This review highlights (i) the discovery and potential applications of structurally complex pyrimidine nucleoside antibiotics for which genetic information is known, (ii) the established reactions that convert the canonical pyrimidine into a new nucleoside scaffold, and (iii) the important tailoring reactions that impart further structural complexity to these molecules.

Harnessing synthetic biology-based strategies for engineered biosynthesis of nucleoside natural products in actinobacteria

Antibiotic resistance poses an increasing threat to global health, and it is urgent to reverse the present trend by accelerating development of new natural product derived drugs. Nucleoside antibiotics, a valuable family of promising natural products with remarkable structural features and diverse biological activities, have played significant roles in healthcare and for plant protection. Understanding the biosynthesis of these intricate molecules has provided a foundation for bioengineering the microbial cell factory towards yield enhancement and structural diversification. In this review, we summarize the recent progresses in employing synthetic biology-based strategies to improve the production of target nucleoside antibiotics. Moreover, we delineate the advances on rationally accessing the chemical diversities of natural nucleoside antibiotics.

Co-expression of a SARP Family Activator ChlF2 and a Type II Thioesterase ChlK Led to High Production of Chlorothricin in Streptomyces antibioticus DSM 40725

Chlorothricin (CHL), produced by Streptomyces antibioticus DSM 40725 (wild-type strain, WT), belongs to a growing family of spirotetronate antibiotics that have biological activities inhibiting pyruvate carboxylase and malate dehydrogenase. ChlF2, a cluster-situated SARP regulator, can activate the transcription of chlJ, chlC3, chlC6, chlE1, chlM, and chlL to control CHL biosynthesis. Co-expression of chlF2 and chlK encoding type II thioesterase in WT strain under the control of P_kan led to high production of chlorothricin by 840% in comparison with that of WT. Since the inhibitory activity of CHL against several Gram-positive bacteria is higher than des-CHL, combinatorial strategies were applied to promote the conversion of des-CHL to CHL. Over-expression of chlB4, encoding a halogenase, combining with the supplementation of sodium chloride led to further 41% increase of CHL production compared to that of F2OE, a chlF2 over-expression strain. These findings provide new insights into the fine-tuned regulation of spirotetronate family of antibiotics and the construction of high-yield engineered strains.

Metabolic Engineering Strategies Based on Secondary Messengers (p)ppGpp and C-di-GMP To Increase Erythromycin Yield in Saccharopolyspora erythraea

Secondary messengers (such as (p)ppGpp and c-di-GMP) were proved to play important roles in antibiotic biosynthesis in actinobacteria. In this study, we found that transcription levels of erythromycin-biosynthetic ( ery) genes were upregulated in nutrient limitation, which depended on (p)ppGpp in Saccharopolyspora erythraea. Further study demonstrated that the expression of ery genes and intracellular concentrations of (p)ppGpp showed synchronization during culture process. The erythromycin yield was significantly improved (about 200%) by increasing intracellular concentration of (p)ppGpp through introduction of C-terminally truncated (p)ppGpp synthetase RelA (1.43 kb of the N-terminal segment) from Streptomyces coelicolor into S. erythraea strain NRRL2338 (named as WT/pIB-P _BAD- relA^1-489). As the intracellular concentration of (p)ppGpp in an industrial erythromycin-high-producing strain E3 was greatly higher (about 10- to 100-fold) than WT strain, the applications of the above-described strategy did not work in E3 strain. Further research revealed that low concentration of 2-oxoglutarate in E3 strain exerted a "nitrogen-rich" pseudosignal, leading to the downregulation of nitrogen metabolism genes, which limited the use of nitrogen sources and thus the high intracellular (p)ppGpp concentration. Furthermore, the secondary messenger, c-di-GMP, was proved to be able to activate ery genes transcription by enhancing binding of BldD to promoters of ery genes. Overexpressing the diguanylate cyclase CdgB from S. coelicolor in S. erythraea increased the intracellular c-di-GMP concentration, and improved erythromycin production. These findings demonstrated that increasing the concentration of intracellular secondary messengers can activate ery genes transcription, and provided new strategies for designing metabolic engineering based on secondary messengers to improve antibiotics yield in actinobacteria.

Characterization of the positive SARP family regulator PieR for improving piericidin A1 production in Streptomyces piomogeues var. Hangzhouwanensis

Piericidin A1, a member of ɑ-pyridone antibiotic, exhibits various biological activities such as antimicrobial, antifungal, and antitumor properties and possesses potent respiration-inhibitory activity against insects due to its competitive binding capacity to mitochondrial complex I. The biosynthetic pathway of piericidin A1 has been reported in Streptomyces piomogeues var. Hangzhouwanensis, while the regulatory mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, a Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein (SARP) family transcriptional regulator PieR was characterized. Genetic disruption and complementation manipulations revealed that PieR positively regulated the production of piericidin A1. Moreover, the overexpression of pieR contributed to the improvement of piericidin A1 productivity. The real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was carried out and the data showed that pieR stimulated the transcription of all the biosynthesis-related genes for piericidin A1. In order to explore the regulatory mechanism, electrophoresis mobility shift assays (EMSA) and DNase I footprinting experiments have been conducted. A protected region covering 50 nucleotides within the upstream region of pieR was identified and two 5-nt direct repeat sequences (5′-CCGGA-3′) in the protected region were found. These findings, taken together, set stage for transcriptional control engineering in the view of optimizing piericidin A1 production and thus provide a viable potent route for the construction of strains with high productivity.

Regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in actinomycetes: Perspectives and challenges

Actinomycetes are the main sources of antibiotics. The onset and level of production of each antibiotic is subject to complex control by multi-level regulators. These regulators exert their functions at hierarchical levels. At the lower level, cluster-situated regulators (CSRs) directly control the transcription of neighboring genes within the gene cluster. Higher-level pleiotropic and global regulators exert their functions mainly through modulating the transcription of CSRs. Advances in understanding of the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in actinomycetes have inspired us to engineer these regulators for strain improvement and antibiotic discovery.

Promoter Engineering Reveals the Importance of Heptameric Direct Repeats for DNA Binding by Streptomyces Antibiotic Regulatory Protein-Large ATP-Binding Regulator of the LuxR Family (SARP-LAL) Regulators in Streptomyces natalensis

The biosynthesis of small-size polyene macrolides is ultimately controlled by a couple of transcriptional regulators that act in a hierarchical way. A Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein–large ATP-binding regulator of the LuxR family (SARP-LAL) regulator binds the promoter of a PAS-LuxR regulator-encoding gene and activates its transcription, and in turn, the gene product of the latter activates transcription from various promoters of the polyene gene cluster directly. The primary operator of PimR, the archetype of SARP-LAL regulators, contains three heptameric direct repeats separated by four-nucleotide spacers, but the regulator can also bind a secondary operator with only two direct repeats separated by a 3-nucleotide spacer, both located in the promoter region of its unique target gene, pimM. A similar arrangement of operators has been identified for PimR counterparts encoded by gene clusters for different antifungal secondary metabolites, including not only polyene macrolides but peptidyl nucleosides, phoslactomycins, or cycloheximide. Here, we used promoter engineering and quantitative transcriptional analyses to determine the contributions of the different heptameric repeats to transcriptional activation and final polyene production. Optimized promoters have thus been developed. Deletion studies and electrophoretic mobility assays were used for the definition of DNA-binding boxes formed by 22-nucleotide sequences comprising two conserved heptameric direct repeats separated by four-nucleotide less conserved spacers. The cooperative binding of PimR^SARP appears to be the mechanism involved in the binding of regulator monomers to operators, and at least two protein monomers are required for efficient binding.

IMPORTANCE Here, we have shown that a modulation of the production of the antifungal pimaricin in Streptomyces natalensis can be accomplished via promoter engineering of the PAS-LuxR transcriptional activator pimM. The expression of this gene is controlled by the Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein–large ATP-binding regulator of the LuxR family (SARP-LAL) regulator PimR, which binds a series of heptameric direct repeats in its promoter region. The structure and importance of such repeats in protein binding, transcriptional activation, and polyene production have been investigated. These findings should provide important clues to understand the regulatory machinery that modulates antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces and open new possibilities for the manipulation of metabolite production. The presence of PimR orthologues encoded by gene clusters for different secondary metabolites and the conservation of their operators suggest that the improvements observed in the activation of pimaricin biosynthesis by Streptomyces natalensis could be extrapolated to the production of different compounds by other species.

NosP-Regulated Nosiheptide Production Responds to Both Peptidyl and Small-Molecule Ligands Derived from the Precursor Peptide

Nosiheptide, an archetypal member of thiopeptide antibiotics, arises from post-translational modifications of a ribosomally synthesized precursor peptide that contains an N-terminal leader peptide (LP) sequence and a C-terminal core peptide (CP) sequence. Despite extensive efforts concerning the biosynthesis of thiopeptide antibiotics, the regulatory mechanisms in this process remain poorly understood. Using the nosiheptide-producing Streptomyces actuosus strain as a model system, we report here that NosP, a Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein, serves as the only cluster-situated regulator and activates the transcription of all structural genes, which are organized into two divergently transcribed operons in the nos cluster, by binding to their intergenic region. NocP, the counterpart of NosP in Nocardia sp., regulates the production of structurally related nocathiacin I in a similar manner. NosP activity senses the nosiheptide biosynthetic process by interactions with both peptidyl and small-molecule ligands that result from the LP and CP parts of the precursor peptide, respectively.

Regulatory genes and their roles for improvement of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces

The numerous secondary metabolites in Streptomyces spp. are crucial for various applications. For example, cephamycin C is used as an antibiotic, and avermectin is used as an insecticide. Specifically, antibiotic yield is closely related to many factors, such as the external environment, nutrition (including nitrogen and carbon sources), biosynthetic efficiency and the regulatory mechanisms in producing strains. There are various types of regulatory genes that work in different ways, such as pleiotropic (or global) regulatory genes, cluster-situated regulators, which are also called pathway-specific regulatory genes, and many other regulators. The study of regulatory genes that influence antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces spp. not only provides a theoretical basis for antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces but also helps to increase the yield of antibiotics via molecular manipulation of these regulatory genes. Currently, more and more emphasis is being placed on the regulatory genes of antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters in Streptomyces spp., and many studies on these genes have been performed to improve the yield of antibiotics in Streptomyces. This paper lists many antibiotic biosynthesis regulatory genes in Streptomyces spp. and focuses on frequently investigated regulatory genes that are involved in pathway-specific regulation and pleiotropic regulation and their applications in genetic engineering.

Natural and engineered biosynthesis of nucleoside antibiotics in Actinomycetes

Nucleoside antibiotics constitute an important family of microbial natural products bearing diverse bioactivities and unusual structural features. Their biosynthetic logics are unique with involvement of complex multi-enzymatic reactions leading to the intricate molecules from simple building blocks. Understanding how nature builds this family of antibiotics in post-genomic era sets the stage for rational enhancement of their production, and also paves the way for targeted persuasion of the cell factories to make artificial designer nucleoside drugs and leads via synthetic biology approaches. In this review, we discuss the recent progress and perspectives on the natural and engineered biosynthesis of nucleoside antibiotics.

Coordinative Modulation of Chlorothricin Biosynthesis by Binding of the Glycosylated Intermediates and End Product to a Responsive Regulator ChlF1

Chlorothricin, isolated from Streptomyces antibioticus, is a parent member of spirotetronate family of antibiotics that have long been appreciated for their remarkable biological activities. ChlF1 plays bifunctional roles in chlorothricin biosynthesis by binding to its target genes (chlJ, chlF1, chlG, and chlK). The dissociation constants of ChlF1 to these genes are ∼ 102-140 nm. A consensus sequence, 5'-GTAANNATTTAC-3', was found in these binding sites. ChlF1 represses the transcription of chlF1, chlG, and chlK but activates chlJ, which encodes a key enzyme acyl-CoA carboxyl transferase involved in the chlorothricin biosynthesis. We demonstrate that the end product chlorothricin and likewise its biosynthetic intermediates (demethylsalicycloyl chlorothricin and deschloro-chlorothricin) can act as signaling molecules to modulate the binding of ChlF1 to its target genes. Intriguingly, a correlation between the antibacterial activity and binding ability of signaling molecules to the regulator ChlF1 is clearly observed. These features of the signaling molecules are associated with the glycosylation of spirotetronate macrolide aglycone. The findings provide new insights into the TetR family regulators responding to special structure of signaling molecules, and we reveal the regulatory mini-network mediated by ChlF1 in chlorothricin biosynthesis for the first time.

Constitutive overexpression of asm18 increases the production and diversity of maytansinoids in Actinosynnema pretiosum

Ansamitocins isolated from Actinosynnema pretiosum, potent antitumor compounds, belong to the family of maytansinoids, and the antibody-maytansinoid conjugates are currently under different phases of clinical trials. The clinical applications of ansamitocins have stimulated extensive studies to improve their production yields. In this study, we investigated the function of a pathway-specific S treptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein (SARP) family regulator, Asm18, and observed that ectopic overexpression of the asm18 gene increased the production of N-demethyl-4,5-desepoxy-maytansinol (2) to 50 mg/L in the HGF052 + pJTU824-asm18 strain, an increase by 4.7-fold compared to that of the control strain HGF052 + pJTU824. Real-time PCR analysis showed that the overexpression of the asm18 gene selectively increased the transcription levels of the genes involved in the biosynthesis of the starter unit (asm43), polyketide assembly (asmA), post-PKS modification (asm21), as well as the transcription levels of the regulatory gene (asm8), which is a specific LAL-type activator in ansamitocin biosynthesis. With the increase of fermentation titre, seven ansamitocin analogs (1-7) including three new ones (1, 5, and 6) and maytansinol (7) were isolated from the HGF052 + pJTU824-asm18 strain. Our results not only pave the way for further improving the production of ansamitocin analogs but also indicate that the post-PKS modifications of ansamitocin biosynthesis are flexible, which brings a potential of producing maytansinol, the most fascinating intermediate for the synthesis of antibody-maytansinoid conjugates, by optimizing the HGF052 and/or HGF052 + pJTU824-asm18 strains.

Overproduction of lactimidomycin by cross-overexpression of genes encoding Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory proteins

The glutarimide-containing polyketides represent a fascinating class of natural products that exhibit a multitude of biological activities. We have recently cloned and sequenced the biosynthetic gene clusters for three members of the glutarimide-containing polyketides-iso-migrastatin (iso-MGS) from Streptomyces platensis NRRL 18993, lactimidomycin (LTM) from Streptomyces amphibiosporus ATCC 53964, and cycloheximide (CHX) from Streptomyces sp. YIM56141. Comparative analysis of the three clusters identified mgsA and chxA, from the mgs and chx gene clusters, respectively, that were predicted to encode the PimR-like Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory proteins (SARPs) but failed to reveal any regulatory gene from the ltm gene cluster. Overexpression of mgsA or chxA in S. platensis NRRL 18993, Streptomyces sp. YIM56141 or SB11024, and a recombinant strain of Streptomyces coelicolor M145 carrying the intact mgs gene cluster has no significant effect on iso-MGS or CHX production, suggesting that MgsA or ChxA regulation may not be rate-limiting for iso-MGS and CHX production in these producers. In contrast, overexpression of mgsA or chxA in S. amphibiosporus ATCC 53964 resulted in a significant increase in LTM production, with LTM titer reaching 106 mg/L, which is five-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain. These results support MgsA and ChxA as members of the SARP family of positive regulators for the iso-MGS and CHX biosynthetic machinery and demonstrate the feasibility to improve glutarimide-containing polyketide production in Streptomyces strains by exploiting common regulators.

Biotechnological production and application of the antibiotic pimaricin: biosynthesis and its regulation

Pimaricin (natamycin) is a small polyene macrolide antibiotic used worldwide. This efficient antimycotic and antiprotozoal agent, produced by several soil bacterial species of the genus Streptomyces, has found application in human therapy, in the food and beverage industries and as pesticide. It displays a broad spectrum of activity, targeting ergosterol but bearing a particular mode of action different to other polyene macrolides. The biosynthesis of this only antifungal agent with a GRAS status has been thoroughly studied, which has permitted the manipulation of producers to engineer the biosynthetic gene clusters in order to generate several analogues. Regulation of its production has been largely unveiled, constituting a model for other polyenes and setting the leads for optimizing the production of these valuable compounds. This review describes and discusses the molecular genetics, uses, mode of action, analogue generation, regulation and strategies for increasing pimaricin production yields.

Identification of novel mureidomycin analogues via rational activation of a cryptic gene cluster in Streptomyces roseosporus NRRL 15998

Antimicrobial agents are urgently needed to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. An important source of new antimicrobials is the large repertoire of cryptic gene clusters embedded in microbial genomes. Genome mining revealed a napsamycin/mureidomycin biosynthetic gene cluster in the chromosome of Streptomyces roseosporus NRRL 15998. The cryptic gene cluster was activated by constitutive expression of a foreign activator gene ssaA from sansanmycin biosynthetic gene cluster of Streptomyces sp. strain SS. Expression of the gene cluster was verified by RT-PCR analysis of key biosynthetic genes. The activated metabolites demonstrated potent inhibitory activity against the highly refractory pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and characterization of the metabolites led to the discovery of eight acetylated mureidomycin analogues. To our surprise, constitutive expression of the native activator gene SSGG_02995, a ssaA homologue in S. roseosporus NRRL 15998, has no beneficial effect on mureidomycin stimulation. This study provides a new way to activate cryptic gene cluster for the acquisition of novel antibiotics and will accelerate the exploitation of prodigious natural products in Streptomyces.

Genome engineering and direct cloning of antibiotic gene clusters via phage ϕBT1 integrase-mediated site-specific recombination in Streptomyces

Several strategies have been used to clone large DNA fragments directly from bacterial genome. Most of these approaches are based on different site-specific recombination systems consisting of a specialized recombinase and its target sites. In this study, a novel strategy based on phage ϕBT1 integrase-mediated site-specific recombination was developed, and used for simultaneous Streptomyces genome engineering and cloning of antibiotic gene clusters. This method has been proved successful for the cloning of actinorhodin gene cluster from Streptomyces coelicolor M145, napsamycin gene cluster and daptomycin gene cluster from Streptomyces roseosporus NRRL 15998 at a frequency higher than 80%. Furthermore, the system could be used to increase the titer of antibiotics as we demonstrated with actinorhodin and daptomycin, and it will be broadly applicable in many Streptomyces.

Production of the antibiotic FR-008/candicidin in Streptomyces sp. FR-008 is co-regulated by two regulators, FscRI and FscRIV, from different transcription factor families

In Streptomyces sp. FR-008, the biosynthetic gene cluster of the polyene antibiotic FR-008, also known as candicidin, consists of 21 genes, including four regulatory genes, fscRI-fscRIV. Our bioinformatics analyses indicate that FscRI has an N-terminal PAS domain, whereas the other three regulators have N-terminal AAA domains and are members of the LAL (large ATP-binding regulators of the LuxR type) family. Deletion of fscRI abolished the production of FR-008, with production restored in the complemented strain, supporting a critical role for FscRI in FR-008 biosynthesis. Consistent with these findings, transcription of genes involved in the biosynthesis and efflux of FR-008 was greatly downregulated in a ΔfscRI mutant. Interestingly, the regulatory gene fscRIV was also downregulated in the ΔfscRI mutant. Production of FR-008 was reduced, but not abrogated, in an fscRIV deletion mutant, and although structural genes were downregulated in ΔfscRIV, the changes were much less dramatic than in ΔfscRI, suggesting a stronger regulatory role for FscRI. Remarkably, transcription of fscRI was also decreased in ΔfscRIV. Expression of fscRI restored antibiotic production in a ΔfscRIV mutant, but not vice versa. Putative binding sequences for FscRI were identified upstream of fscRIV and the three structural genes fscA, fscB and fscD, which encode large modular polyketide synthases. Our findings suggest that fscRI and fscRIV are interregulatory, whereas expression of fscRII and fscRIII appears to be independent of fscRI and fscRIV. This study demonstrates that the regulation of polyene antibiotic synthesis can involve mutually regulated transcriptional activators that belong to different families.

PAS-LuxR transcriptional control of filipin biosynthesis in S. avermitilis

The DNA region encoding the filipin gene cluster in Streptomyces avermitilis (pte) contains a PAS-LuxR regulatory gene, pteF, orthologue to pimM, the final pathway-specific positive regulatory protein of pimaricin biosynthesis in Streptomyces natalensis. Gene replacement of the gene from S. avermitilis chromosome resulted in a severe loss of filipin production and delayed spore formation in comparison to that of the wild-type strain, suggesting that it acts as a positive regulator of filipin biosynthesis and that it may also have a role in sporulation. Complementation of the mutant with a single copy of the gene integrated into the chromosome restored wild-type phenotypes. Heterologous complementation with the regulatory counterpart from S. natalensis also restored parental phenotypes. Gene expression analyses in S. avermitilis wild-type and the mutant by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction of the filipin gene cluster suggested the targets for the regulatory protein. Transcription start points of all the genes of the cluster were studied by 5'-rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends. Transcription start point analysis of the pteF gene revealed that the annotated sequence in the databases is incorrect. Confirmation of target promoters was performed by in silico search of binding sites among identified promoters and the binding of the orthologous regulator for pimaricin biosynthesis PimM to gene promoters by electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Precise binding regions were investigated by DNAse I protection studies. Our results indicate that PteF activates the transcription from two promoters of polyketide synthase genes directly, and indirectly of other genes of the cluster.

Nitrogen starvation-induced transcriptome alterations and influence of transcription regulator mutants in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Background

As other bacteria, Mycobacterium smegmatis needs adaption mechanisms to cope with changing nitrogen sources and to survive situations of nitrogen starvation. In the study presented here, transcriptome analyses were used to characterize the response of the bacterium to nitrogen starvation and to elucidate the role of specific transcriptional regulators.

Results

In response to nitrogen deprivation, a general starvation response is induced in M. smegmatis. This includes changes in the transcription of several hundred genes encoding e.g. transport proteins, proteins involved in nitrogen metabolism and regulation, energy generation and protein turnover. The specific nitrogen-related changes at the transcriptional level depend mainly on the presence of GlnR, while the AmtR protein controls only a small number of genes.

Conclusions

M. smegmatis is able to metabolize a number of different nitrogen sources and nitrogen control in M. smegmatis is similar to control mechanisms characterized in streptomycetes, while the master regulator of nitrogen control in corynebacteria, AmtR, is plays a minor role in this regulatory network.

JadR*-mediated feed-forward regulation of cofactor supply in jadomycin biosynthesis

Jadomycin production is under complex regulation in Streptomyces venezuelae. Here, another cluster-situated regulator, JadR*, was shown to negatively regulate jadomycin biosynthesis by binding to four upstream regions of jadY, jadR1, jadI and jadE in jad gene cluster respectively. The transcriptional levels of four target genes of JadR* increased significantly in ΔjadR*, confirming that these genes were directly repressed by JadR*. Jadomycin B (JdB) and its biosynthetic intermediates 2,3-dehydro-UWM6 (DHU), dehydrorabelomycin (DHR) and jadomycin A (JdA) modulated the DNA-binding activities of JadR* on the jadY promoter, with DHR giving the strongest dissociation effects. Direct interactions between JadR* and these ligands were further demonstrated by surface plasmon resonance, which showed that DHR has the highest affinity for JadR*. However, only DHU and DHR could induce the expression of jadY and jadR* in vivo. JadY is the FMN/FAD reductase supplying cofactors FMNH₂/FADH₂ for JadG, an oxygenase, that catalyses the conversion of DHR to JdA. Therefore, our results revealed that JadR* and early pathway intermediates, particularly DHR, regulate cofactor supply by a convincing case of a feed-forward mechanism. Such delicate regulation of expression of jadY could ensure a timely supply of cofactors FMNH₂/FADH₂ for jadomycin biosynthesis, and avoid unnecessary consumption of NAD(P)H.

JadR and jadR2 act synergistically to repress jadomycin biosynthesis

The biosynthesis of antibiotics is controlled by cascade regulation involving cluster-situated regulators (CSRs) and pleiotropic regulators. Three CSRs have been identified in the jadomycin biosynthetic gene cluster, including one OmpR-type activator (JadR1) and two TetR-like repressors (JadR and JadR2). To examine their interactions in jadomycin biosynthesis, a series of mutants were generated and tested for jadomycin production. We noticed that jadomycin production in the jadR-jadR2 double mutant was increased dramatically compared with either single mutant. Transcriptional analysis showed that jadR and jadR2 act synergistically to repress jadomycin production by inhibiting the transcription of jadR1. Furthermore, jadR and jadR2 reciprocally inhibit each other. The complex interactions among these three CSRs may provide clues for the activation of the jadomycin gene cluster, which would otherwise remain silent without stimulation from stress signals.

Molecular regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in streptomyces

Streptomycetes are the most abundant source of antibiotics. Typically, each species produces several antibiotics, with the profile being species specific. Streptomyces coelicolor, the model species, produces at least five different antibiotics. We review the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in S. coelicolor and other, nonmodel streptomycetes in the light of recent studies. The biosynthesis of each antibiotic is specified by a large gene cluster, usually including regulatory genes (cluster-situated regulators [CSRs]). These are the main point of connection with a plethora of generally conserved regulatory systems that monitor the organism's physiology, developmental state, population density, and environment to determine the onset and level of production of each antibiotic. Some CSRs may also be sensitive to the levels of different kinds of ligands, including products of the pathway itself, products of other antibiotic pathways in the same organism, and specialized regulatory small molecules such as gamma-butyrolactones. These interactions can result in self-reinforcing feed-forward circuitry and complex cross talk between pathways. The physiological signals and regulatory mechanisms may be of practical importance for the activation of the many cryptic secondary metabolic gene cluster pathways revealed by recent sequencing of numerous Streptomyces genomes.

Novel polyoxins generated by heterologously expressing polyoxin biosynthetic gene cluster in the sanN inactivated mutant of Streptomyces ansochromogenes

Background

Polyoxins are potent inhibitors of chitin synthetases in fungi and insects. The gene cluster responsible for biosynthesis of polyoxins has been cloned and sequenced from Streptomyces cacaoi and tens of polyoxin analogs have been identified already.

Results

The polyoxin biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces cacaoi was heterologously expressed in the sanN inactivated mutant of Streptomyces ansochromogenes as a nikkomycin producer. Besides hybrid antibiotics (polynik A and polyoxin N) and some known polyoxins, two novel polyoxin analogs were accumulated. One of them is polyoxin P that has 5-aminohexuronic acid with N-glycosidically bound thymine as the nucleoside moiety and dehydroxyl-carbamoylpolyoxic acid as the peptidyl moiety. The other analog is polyoxin O that contains 5-aminohexuronic acid bound thymine as the nucleoside moiety, but recruits polyoximic acid as the sole peptidyl moiety. Bioassay against phytopathogenic fungi showed that polyoxin P displayed comparatively strong inhibitory activity, whereas the inhibitory activity of polyoxin O was weak under the same testing conditions.

Conclusion

Two novel polyoxin analogs (polyoxin P and O) were generated by the heterologous expression of polyoxin biosynthetic gene cluster in the sanN inactivated mutant of Streptomyces ansochromogenes. Polyoxin P showed potent antifungal activity,while the activity of polyoxin O was weak. The strategy presented here may be available for other antibiotics producers.

Hierarchical control on polyene macrolide biosynthesis: PimR modulates pimaricin production via the PAS-LuxR transcriptional activator PimM

Control of polyene macrolide production in Streptomyces natalensis is mediated by the transcriptional activator PimR. This regulator combines an N-terminal domain corresponding to the Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein (SARP) family of transcriptional activators with a C-terminal half homologous to guanylate cyclases and large ATP-binding regulators of the LuxR family. The PimR SARP domain (PimR(SARP)) was expressed in Escherichia coli as a glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fused protein. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that GST-PimR(SARP) binds a single target, the intergenic region between the regulatory genes pimR and pimMs in the pimaricin cluster. The PimR(SARP)-binding site was investigated by DNaseI protection studies, revealing that it contains three heptameric direct repeats adjusting to the consensus 5'-CGGCAAG-3'. Transcription start points of pimM and pimR promoters were identified by 5'-RACE, revealing that unlike other SARPs, PimR(SARP) does not interact with the -35 region of its target promoter. Quantitative transcriptional analysis of these regulatory genes on mutants on each of them has allowed the identification of the pimM promoter as the transcriptional target for PimR. Furthermore, the constitutive expression of pimM restored pimaricin production in a pimaricin-deficient strain carrying a deletion mutant of pimR. These results reveal that PimR exerts its positive effect on pimaricin production by controlling pimM expression level, a regulator whose gene product activates transcription from eight different promoters of pimaricin structural genes directly.

Waking up Streptomyces secondary metabolism by constitutive expression of activators or genetic disruption of repressors

Streptomycete bacteria are renowned as a prolific source of natural products with diverse biological activities. Production of these metabolites is often subject to transcriptional regulation: the biosynthetic genes remain silent until the required environmental and/or physiological signals occur. Consequently, in the laboratory environment, many gene clusters that direct the biosynthesis of natural products with clinical potential are not expressed or at very low level preventing the production/detection of the associated metabolite. Genetic engineering of streptomycetes can unleash the production of many new natural products. This chapter describes the overexpression of pathway-specific activators, the genetic disruption of pathway-specific repressors, and the main strategy used to identify and characterize new natural products from these engineered Streptomyces strains.

Autoregulation of hpdR and its effect on CDA biosynthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor

HpdR, an IclR-family regulator in Streptomyces coelicolor, is a substrate-dependent repressor for the tyrosine catabolic gene hppD. In this study, S1 nuclease protection assays revealed that hpdR is subject to a negative autoregulation. Purified HpdR showed specific DNA-binding activity for the promoter region of hpdR, indicating that the autoregulation of hpdR is performed directly. The disruption of hpdR led to reduced production of CDA by S. coelicolor J1501, suggesting a positive effect of hpdR on CDA biosynthesis. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that HpdR specifically bound to the promoter region of hmaS (SCO3229 in the CDA gene cluster), encoding 4-hydroxymandelic acid synthase. Disruption of hmaS in J1501 abolished CDA production. It is possible that hpdR regulates CDA biosynthesis by controlling the transcription of hmaS.

SanG, a transcriptional activator, controls nikkomycin biosynthesis through binding to the sanN–sanO intergenic region in Streptomyces ansochromogenes

Streptomyces ansochromogenes SanG is a pathway-specific regulator that mainly controls the transcription of two transcriptional units involved in nikkomycin biosynthesis. SanG consists of three major functional domains: an N-terminal Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein (SARP) domain, a central ATPase domain, and a C-terminal half homologous to guanylate cyclases belonging to the LuxR family. SanG was expressed in Escherichia coli as a C-terminally His6-tagged protein. The purified SanG-His6 was shown to be a dimer in solution by dynamic light scattering. An electrophoretic mobility-shift assay showed that the purified SanG protein could bind to the DNA fragment containing the bidirectional sanN–sanO promoter region. The SanG-binding sites within the bidirectional sanN–sanO promoter region were determined by footprinting analysis and identified a consensus-directed repeat sequence 5′-CGGCAAG-3′. SanG showed significant ATPase/GTPase activity in vitro, and addition of ATP/GTP enhanced the affinity of SanG for target DNA, but ATP/GTP hydrolysis was not essential for SanG binding to the target DNA. However, real-time reverse transcription PCR showed that mutation of the ATPase/GTPase domain of SanG significantly decreased the transcriptional level of sanN–I and sanO–V. These results indicated that the ATPase/GTPase activity of SanG modulated the transcriptional activation of SanG target genes during nikkomycin biosynthesis.

PolY, a transcriptional regulator with ATPase activity, directly activates transcription of polR in polyoxin biosynthesis in Streptomyces cacaoi

polY, a transcriptional regulatory gene in the polyoxin biosynthetic cluster of Streptomyces cacaoi, was analysed, and its deduced product (PolY) showed amino acid sequence homology to AfsR from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). PolY contains an OmpR-like DNA binding domain at its N-terminal and an ATPase domain in the middle of the protein. Disruption of polY abolished polyoxin biosynthesis, which could be restored by the integration of a single copy of polY into the chromosome of the disruption mutant. Transcription of polR, a pathway-specific regulatory gene of polyoxin biosynthesis, was controlled by polY. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay and DNase I protection experiments indicated that PolY bound to the promoter region of polR, and the binding site contained a direct nucleotide repeat typical of Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory protein binding sites. PolY exhibited ATPase activity in vitro. Additionally, binding of ADP/ATPgammaS to ATPase domain triggered the oligomerization of PolY and enhanced its DNA binding activity. Consistently, further experiments in vivo demonstrated that changes of ADP/ATP concentrations significantly affected PolY activity in the cell. These results suggested that the ATPase domain might be a sensor of endogenous pool of ADP/ATP, whose change modulated PolY activity under the physiological conditions.