Project description:FK506 (tacrolimus) is a valuable immunosuppressant produced by several Streptomyces strains. In the genome of the wild type producer Streptomyces tsukubaensis NRRL18488 FK506 biosynthesis is encoded by a gene cluster that spans 83.5 kilobases. A whole transcriptome differential shotgun sequencing of S. tsukubaensis was performed to analyze transcription at two different time points; before and during active FK506 production. In total 8,914 transcription start sites were identified in either condition, which enabled precise determination of the 5'-UTR length of the corresponding transcripts as well as the identification of two consensus sequence motifs in the promoter regions. The transcription start sites of all gene operons within the FK506 cluster were identified, including three examples of leaderless RNA transcripts. These data provide detailed insight into the transcription of the FK506 biosynthetic gene cluster and supports future regulatory studies and genetic manipulations.
Project description:<p>Natural products from microorganisms are important sources for drug discovery. With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology and bioinformatics, a large amount of uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in microorganisms have been found, which show the potential for novel natural product production. 9 BGCs containing PKS and/or NRPS in <em>Streptomyces globisporus</em> C-1027 were transcriptionally low/silent under the experimental fermentation conditions, and the products of these clusters are unknown. Thus, we tried to activate these BGCs to explore cryptic products of this strain. We constructed the cluster-situated regulator overexpressing strains which contained regulator gene(s) under the control of the constitutive promoter <em>ermE</em>*p in <em>S. globisporus</em> C-1027. Overexpression of regulators in cluster 26 resulted in significant transcriptional upregulation of biosynthetic genes. With the separation and identification of products from the overexpressing strain OELuxR1R2, 3 <em>ortho</em>-methyl phenyl alkenoic acids (compounds <strong>1-3</strong>) were obtained. Gene disruption showed that compounds <strong>1</strong> and <strong>2</strong> were completely abolished in the mutant GlaEKO, but were hardly affected by deletion of the genes <em>orf3</em> or <em>echA</em> in cluster 26. The type II PKS biosynthetic pathway of chain-extended cinnamoyl compounds was deduced by bioinformatics analysis. This study showed that overexpression of the 2 adjacent cluster-situated LuxR regulator(s) is an effective strategy to connect the orphan BGC to its products.</p>
Project description:This study compared the genome of Streptomyces rimosus rimosus against that of Streptomyces coelicolor. It also compared 4 strains with changes in oxytetracycline production and derived from G7, the type strain, against G7. Keywords: Comparative genomic hybridization