• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2009

MAPSI(Management and Analysis for Polyketide Synthase Type I) has been developed to offer computational analysis methods to detect type I PKS(polyketide synthase) gene clusters in genome sequences. MAPSI provides a genome analysis component, which detects PKS gene clusters by identifying domains in proteins of a genome. MAPSI also contains databases on polyketides and genome annotation data, as well as analytic components such as new PKS assembly and domain analysis. The polyketide data and analysis component are accessible through Web interfaces and are displayed with diverse information. MAPSI, which was developed to aid researchers studying type I polyketides, provides diverse components to access and analyze polyketide information and should become a very powerful computational tool for polyketide research. The system can be extended through further studies of factors related to the biological activities of polyketides.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 1995

Streptomyces albus wild type ATCC 21838 produced salinomycin, polyether antibiotic. To clone genes related salinomycin production, a genomic library was screened using actI as a DNA hybridization probe. pWHM 210 was isolated, which contained an approximately 24 kb of insert DNA. A 3.8 kb region in the 24 kb insert DNA was hybridized to actI and the nucleotide sequence of this region was determinied. Two open reading frames found in the same direction were homologous to genes for $\beta$-keto acyl synthase/acyl transferase and chain length determining factor in type II PKS (polyketide synthase). The genes were components of minimal type II PKS genes, highly conserved and showed the strong simiarity to other type II PKS genes known today.

• Mycobiology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2014

Usnea longissima has a long history of use as a traditional medicine. Several bioactive compounds, primarily belonging to the polyketide family, have been isolated from U. longissima. However, the genes for the biosynthesis of these compounds are yet to be identified. In the present study, three different types of non-reducing polyketide synthases (UlPKS2, UlPKS4, and UlPKS6) were identified from a cultured lichen-forming fungus of U. longissima. Phylogenetic analysis of product template domains showed that UlPKS2 and UlPKS4 belong to group IV, which includes the non-reducing polyketide synthases with an methyltransferase (MeT) domain that are involved in methylorcinol-based compound synthesis; UlPKS6 was found to belong to group I, which includes the non-reducing polyketide synthases that synthesize single aromatic ring polyketides, such as orsellinic acid. Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis demonstrated that UlPKS2 and UlPKS4 were upregulated by sucrose; UlPKS6 was downregulated by asparagine, glycine, and alanine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.613-619
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• 2003

The polyketide backbone of rifamycin B is assembled by the type I rifamycin polyketide synthase (PKS) encoded by the rifA-rifE genes. In order to produce novel analogs of rifamycin via engineering of the PKS genes, inactivation of the ${\beta}-ketoacyl:acyl$ carrier protein reductase (KR) domain in module 8 of rifD, by site-specific mutagenesis of the NADPH binding site, was attempted. Module 8 contains a nonfunctional dehydratase (DH) domain and a functional KR domain that is involved in the reduction of the ${\beta}-carbonyl$ group, resulting in the C-21 hydroxyl of rifamycin B. This mutant strain produced linear polyketides, from tetraketide to octaketide, which were also produced by a rifD-disruption mutant as a consequence of premature termination of the polyketide assembly. Another attempt to replace the DH domain of module 7, which has been considered nonfunctional, with a functional homolog derived from module 7 of rapamycin-producing PKS also resulted in the production of linear polyketides, including the heptaketide intermediate and its precursors. Premature release of the carbon chain assembly intermediates is an unusual property of the rifamycin PKS. that is not seen in other PKSs such as the erythromycin PKS.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.819-822
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• 2003

Polyketides are an extensive class of secondary metabolites with diverse molecular structures and biological activities. A plasmid-based minimal polyketide synthase (PKS) expression cassette was constructed using a subset of actinorhodin (act) biosynthetic genes (actI-orfl, actI-orf2, actI-orf3, actIII, actⅦ, and actIV) from Streptomyces coelicolor, which specify the construction of an orange-fluorescent anthraquinone product aloesaponarin II, a type II polyketide compound derived from one acetyl coenzyme A and 7 malonyl coenzyme A extender units. This system was designed as an indicator pathway in S. parvulus to generate a hybrid type II polyketide compound via gene-specific replacement. The act ${\beta}-ketoacyl$ synthase unit (actI-orfl and actI-orf2) in the expression cassette was specifically replaced with oxytetracycline ${\beta}-ketoacyl$ synthase otcY-orfl and otcY-orf2). This plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette generated a novel orange-fluorescent compound structurally different from aloesaponarin II in both S. lividans and S. parvulus. In addition, several additional distinctive blue-fluorescent compounds were detected, when this hybrid PKS cassette was expressed in S. coelicolor B78 (actI-orf2 mutant), implying that the expression of plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette in Streptomyces species should be an efficient way of generating hybrid type II polyketide compounds.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.136-143
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• 2010

DNA fragments encoding the ketosynthase (KS) domain of polyketide synthase (PKS) genes were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from 9 strains of Sorangium cellulosum isolated in Korea, cloned into a plasmid vector and sequenced. A total of 83 cloned DNA fragments were analyzed, and similar fragments were excluded, leaving 43 independent DNA fragments encoding the KS domains. The predicted amino acid sequences of 32 fragments were 70%-100% identical to the amino acid sequences of already known PKS genes, while the remaining 11 fragments were $\leq$67% or less identical to the known sequences, suggesting that these genes are novel PKS genes.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 1997

The pWHM220 cosmid with a 24-kb insert cloned from Streptomyces albus ATCC 21838 induces the biosynthesis of a polysther antibiotic similar to salinomycin in Streptomyces invidans. We have analyzed this region by DNA sequencing as well as Southern blot hybridization with type I and type II polyketide synthase (PKS) probes. Surprisingly, we found another set of type II SKS genes only 10-kb from the original PKS genes, salABCDE. The DNA sequence revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) named salB2 and salC2, and one partial ORF that does not resemble any known DNA or deduced protein sequence. The salC2 should code for chain length determining factor while the deduced amino acid sequence encoded by salB2 exhibits high similarity to .betha.-ketoacyl synthase from different PKS gene clusters. The highest identity was found for .betha.-keetoacyl synthases from S. argillaceus (MtmP. 59.1% identity), the mithramycin producer and from S. venezuelae ISP5230 (JadA, 52.3% identity), the jadomycin producer. The SalC2 protein clearly resembles its counterparts in order aromatic PKS gene clusters that are believed to influence the length of the polyketide chain. The highest identities observed were to that of S. argillaceus (MtmK, 62.3%) and S. venezuelae ISP 5230 (JadB, 55.1%) proteins, Moreover, the deduced amino acid sequences of the salB2 and salC2 products were 29.0% identical.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.823-827
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• 2003

Streptomyces venezuelae ATCC 15439 is notable in its ability to produce two distinct groups of macrolactones. It has been reported that the generation of two macrolactone structures results from alternative expression of pikromycin (Pik) polyketide synthase (PKS). It was previously reported that the hybrid pikromycin-tylosin PKS can also produce two different macrolactones but its mechanistic basis remains unclear. In order to address this question, a series of site-directed mutagenesis of tentative alternative ribosome binding site and translation start codons in tylGV were performed. The results suggest that macrolactone ring size is not determined by the alternative expression of TylGV but through other mechanism(s) involving direct interaction between the PikAIII and TE domain or skipping of the final chain elongation step. This provides new insight into the mechanism of macrolactone ring size determination in hybrid PKS as well as an opportunity to develop novel termination activities for combinatorial biosynthesis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1648-1652
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• 2015

Azaphilone polyketides are synthesized by iterative non-reducing fungal polyketide synthases (NR-fPKSs) with a C-terminus reductive domain (-R). Several azaphilone biosynthetic gene clusters contain a putative serine hydrolase gene; the Monascus azaphilone pigment (MAzP) gene cluster harbors mppD. The MAzP productivity was significantly reduced by a knockout of mppD, and the MAzP NR-fPKS-R gene (MpPKS5) generated its product in yeast only when co-expressed with mppD. Site-directed mutations of mppD for conserved Ser/Asp/His residues abolished the product formation from the MpPKS5/mppD co-expression. MppD and its homologs are thus proposed as a new protein factor involved in the product formation of NR-fPKS-R.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1392-1398
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• 2006

We investigated a possible coordination between the biosyntheses of two polyketides in the cereal head blight fungus Gibberella zeae, zearalenone (ZEA) and aurofusarin (AUR), which are catalyzed by the polyketide synthases (PKS) PKS4/PKS13 and PKS12, respectively. To determine if the production of one polyketide influences that of the other, we used four different transgenic strains of G zeae; three were deficient for either ZEA or AUR or both, and one was an AUR-overproducing strain. The mycelia of both the wild-type and ${\Delta}PKS4$ strain deficient for ZEA produced AUR normally, whereas the mycelia of both the ${\Delta}PKS12$ and ${\Delta}PKS4::{\Delta}PKS12$ strain showed no AUR accumulation. All the examined deletion strains caused necrotic spots on the surface of com kernels and were found to produce the nonpolyketide mycotoxins trichothecenes to the same amount as the wild-type strain. In contrast, the AUR-deficient ${\Delta}PKS12$ strains produced greater quantities of ZEA and its derivatives than the wild-type progenitor on both a rice substrate and a liquid medium; the AUR-overproducing strain did not produce ZEA on either medium. Furthermore, the expression of both PKS4 and PKS13 was induced earlier in the ${\Delta}PKS12$ strains than in the wild-type strain, and there was no difference in the transcription of PKS12 between the two strains. Therefore, these results indicate that the ZEA biosynthetic pathway is negatively regulated by the accumulation of another polyketide (AUR) in G zeae.