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Control of secondary metabolism by farX, which is involved in the γ-butyrolactone biosynthesis of Streptomyces lavendulae FRI-5

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Abstract

The γ-butyrolactone signaling system is distributed widely among streptomycetes as an important regulatory mechanism of antibiotic production and/or morphological differentiation. IM-2 [(2R,3R,1′R)-2-(1′-hydroxybutyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-γ-butanolide] is a γ-butyrolactone that switches off the production of d-cycloserine but switches on the production of several nucleoside antibiotics as well as blue pigment in Streptomyces lavendulae FRI-5. farX is a member of the afsA-family genes, which are proposed to encode enzymes involved in γ-butyrolactone biosynthesis. Disruption of farX caused overproduction of d-cycloserine, and abolished production of nucleoside antibiotic and blue pigment with the loss of IM-2 production. The finding that all phenotypic changes observed in the farX disruptant were restored by the addition of exogenous IM-2 suggested that FarX plays a biosynthetic role in IM-2 production. Transcriptional comparison between the wild-type strain and the farX disruptant revealed that, in addition to already known genes farR1 and farR2, several other genes (farR4, farD, and farE) are under the transcriptional regulation of IM-2. Furthermore, the fact that farX transcription is under the control of IM-2 suggested that S. lavendulae FRI-5 has a fine-tuning system to control γ-butyrolactone production.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Hiroshi Kinoshita for his helpful suggestions. This study was supported in part by the “Research Project in the Field of Biotechnology” under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan, the National Research Council of Thailand and the National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand to T.N.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Center for Biotechnology, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Shigeru Kitani, Masashi Doi, Tomohito Shimizu, Asa Maeda & Takuya Nihira

  2. MU-OU Collaborative Research Center for Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama VI Rd, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

    Takuya Nihira

Authors
  1. Shigeru Kitani
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  2. Masashi Doi
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  3. Tomohito Shimizu
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  4. Asa Maeda
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  5. Takuya Nihira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takuya Nihira.

Additional information

Communicated by Jean-Luc Pernodet.

S. Kitani and M. Doi contributed equally to this work.

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Kitani, S., Doi, M., Shimizu, T. et al. Control of secondary metabolism by farX, which is involved in the γ-butyrolactone biosynthesis of Streptomyces lavendulae FRI-5. Arch Microbiol 192, 211–220 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-010-0550-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-010-0550-3

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