The complete genome sequence of a high pristinamycin-producing strain Streptomyces pristinaespiralis HCCB10218.

Streptomyces pristinaespiralis produces the streptogramin-like antibiotic pristinamycin, which is a mixture of two structurally different components: pristinamycin I (PI) and pristinamycin II (PII). Herein, we report the complete genome sequence of a high pristinamycin-producing strain HCCB10218 (8.5 Mb) obtained by using PacBio RSII combined with Illumina HiSeq 2500 sequencing system. The genome sequence presented here provides clues for the mechanism underlying the higher pristinamycin production of HCCB10218.

Involvement of the TetR-Type Regulator PaaR in the Regulation of Pristinamycin I Biosynthesis through an Effect on Precursor Supply in Streptomyces pristinaespiralis.

UNLABELLED: Pristinamycin I (PI), produced by Streptomyces pristinaespiralis, is a streptogramin type B antibiotic, which contains two proteinogenic and five aproteinogenic amino acid precursors. PI is coproduced with pristinamycin II (PII), a member of streptogramin type A antibiotics. The PI biosynthetic gene cluster has been cloned and characterized. However, thus far little is understood about the regulation of PI biosynthesis. In this study, a TetR family regulator (encoded by SSDG_03033) was identified as playing a positive role in PI biosynthesis. Its homologue, PaaR, from Corynebacterium glutamicum serves as a transcriptional repressor of the paa genes involved in phenylacetic acid (PAA) catabolism. Herein, we also designated the identified regulator as PaaR. Deletion of paaR led to an approximately 70% decrease in PI production but had little effect on PII biosynthesis. Identical to the function of its homologue from C. glutamicum, PaaR is also involved in the suppression of paa expression. Given that phenylacetyl coenzyme A (PA-CoA) is the common intermediate of the PAA catabolic pathway and the biosynthetic pathway of L-phenylglycine (L-Phg), the last amino acid precursor for PI biosynthesis, we proposed that derepression of the transcription of paa genes in a ΔpaaR mutant possibly diverts more PA-CoA to the PAA catabolic pathway, thereby with less PA-CoA metabolic flux toward L-Phg formation, thus resulting in lower PI titers. This hypothesis was verified by the observations that PI production of a ΔpaaR mutant was restored by L-Phg supplementation as well as by deletion of the paaABCDE operon in the ΔpaaR mutant. Altogether, this study provides new insights into the regulation of PI biosynthesis by S. pristinaespiralis. IMPORTANCE: A better understanding of the regulation mechanisms for antibiotic biosynthesis will provide valuable clues for Streptomyces strain improvement. Herein, a TetR family regulator PaaR, which serves as the repressor of the transcription of paa genes involved in phenylacetic acid (PAA) catabolism, was identified as playing a positive role in the regulation of pristinamycin I (PI) by affecting the supply of one of seven amino acid precursors, L-phenylglycine, in Streptomyces pristinaespiralis. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the interplay between PAA catabolism and antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces strains. Considering that the PAA catabolic pathway and its regulation by PaaR are widespread in antibiotic-producing actinomycetes, it could be suggested that PaaR-dependent regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis might commonly exist.

Evolution of Streptomyces pristinaespiralis for resistance and production of pristinamycin by genome shuffling.

Improvement of pristinamycin production by Streptomyces pristinaespiralis was performed by using recursive protoplast fusion and selection for improved resistance to the product antibiotic in a genome shuffling format. A 100-microg/ml pristinamycin resistant recombinant, G 4-17, was obtained after four rounds of protoplast fusion, and its production of pristinamycin reached 0.89 g/l, which was increased by 89.4% and 145.9% in comparison with that of the highest parent strain M-156 and the original strain CGMCC 0957, respectively. The subculture experiments indicated that the hereditary character of high producing S. pristinaespiralis G 4-17 was stable. It is concluded that genome shuffling improves the production of pristinamycin by enhancing product-resistance in a stepwise manner. Pristinamycin fermentation experiments by recombinant G 4-17 were carried out in a 5-l fermentor, and its production of pristinamycin reached 0.90 g/l after 60 h of fermentation.