• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.83-91
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• 2018

Advances in bacterial and fungal genome mining uncover a plethora of cryptic secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters. Guided by the genome information, targeted transcriptional derepression could be employed to determine the product of a cryptic gene cluster and to explore its biological role. Monascus spp. are food grade filamentous fungi popular in eastern Asia and several genome data belong to them are now available. We achieved transcription activation of a cryptic fungal polyketide synthase-nonribosomal peptide synthase gene Mpfus1 in Monascus purpureus ${\Delta}MpPKS5$ by inserting Aspergillus gpdA promoter at the upstream of Mpfus1 through double crossover gene replacement. The gene cluster with Mpfus1 show a high similarity to those for the biosynthesis of conjugated polyene derivatives with 2-pyrrolidone ring and the mycotoxin fusarin is the representative member of this group. The ${\Delta}MpPKS5$ is incapable of producing azaphilone pigment, providing an excellent background to identify chromogenic and UV-absorbing compounds. Activation of Mpfus1 resulted in a yellow hue on mycelia and its methanol extract exhibit a maximum absorption at 365 nm. HPLC analysis of the organic extracts indicated the presence of a variety of yellow compounds in the extract. This implies that the product of MpFus1 is metabolically or chemically unstable. LC-MS analysis guided us to predict the MpFus1 product and to propose that the Mpfus1-containing gene cluster encode the biosynthesis of a desmethyl analogue of fusarin. This study showcases the genome mining in Monascus and the possibility to unveil new biological activities embedded in it.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.427-433
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• 2008

The cephabacins produced by Lysobacter lactamgenus are ${\beta}$-lactam antibiotics composed of a cephem nucleus, an acetate residue, and an oligopeptide side chain. In order to understand the precise implication of the polyketide synthase (PKS) module in the biosynthesis of cephabacin, the genes for its core domains, ${\beta}$-ketoacyl synthase (KS), acyltransferase (AT), and acyl carrier protein (ACP), were amplified and cloned into the pET-32b(+) expression vector. The sfp gene encoding a protein that can modify apo-ACP to its active holo-form was also amplified. The recombinant KS, AT, apo-ACP, and Sfp overproduced in the form of $His_6$-tagged fusion proteins in E. coli BL21(DE3) were purified by nickel-affinity chromatography. Formation of stable peptidyl-S-KS was observed by in vitro acylation of the KS domain with the substrate [L-Ala-L-Ala-L-Ala-L-$^3H$-Arg] tetrapeptide-S-N-acetylcysteamine, which is the evidence for the selective recognition of tetrapeptide produced by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) in the NRPS/PKS hybrid. In order to confirm whether malonyl CoA is the extender unit for acetylation of the peptidyl moiety, the AT domain, ACP domain, and Sfp protein were treated with $^{14}C$-malonyl-CoA. The results clearly show that the AT domain is able to recognize the extender unit and decarboxylatively acetylated for the elongation of the tetrapeptide. However, the transfer of the activated acetyl group to the ACP domain was not observed, probably attributed to the improper capability of Sfp to activate apo-ACP to the holo-ACP form.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.229-237
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• 2009

Among 12 marine bacterial strains from the China coast that exhibited interesting bioactivity (positive for both antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities), only four strains, namely, NJ6-3-1, NJ6-3-2, NB-6, and YTHM-17, had a KS domain or A domain when screened for PKS and NRPS genes using a PCR. Interestingly, two of these strains belonging to Pseudoalteromonas and associated with the marine sponge Hymeniacidon perleve were positive for both PKS and NRPS, whereas the other two strains of Pseudoalteromonas did not have a PKS or NRPS gene. A molecular phylogeny analysis and DGGE analysis of the Pseudoalteromonas sp. indicated that they had a specific affinity with the host marine sponge Hymeniacidon perleve. Furthermore, an analysis of a partial sequence of Pseudoalteromonas sp. NJ6-3-2 isolated from the marine sponge Hymeniacidon perleve obtained from genomic walking using a computational approach indicated a relatively complete PKS module including auxiliary domains (DH, KR, and Cy).