Systems metabolic engineering of the primary and secondary metabolism of Streptomyces albidoflavus enhances production of the reverse antibiotic nybomycin against multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Nybomycin is an antibiotic compound with proven activity against multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, making it an interesting candidate for combating these globally threatening pathogens. For exploring its potential, sufficient amounts of nybomycin and its derivatives must be synthetized to fully study its effectiveness, safety profile, and clinical applications. As native isolates only accumulate low amounts of the compound, superior producers are needed. The heterologous cell factory S. albidoflavus 4N24, previously derived from the cluster-free chassis S. albidoflavus Del14, produced 860 µg L-1 of nybomycin, mainly in the stationary phase. A first round of strain development modulated expression of genes involved in supply of nybomycin precursors under control of the common Perm* promoter in 4N24, but without any effect. Subsequent studies with mCherry reporter strains revealed that Perm* failed to drive expression during the product synthesis phase but that use of two synthetic promoters (PkasOP* and P41) enabled strong constitutive expression during the entire process. Using PkasOP*, several rounds of metabolic engineering successively streamlined expression of genes involved in the pentose phosphate pathway, the shikimic acid pathway, supply of CoA esters, and nybomycin biosynthesis and export, which more than doubled the nybomycin titer to 1.7 mg L-1 in the sixth-generation strain NYB-6B. In addition, we identified the minimal set of nyb genes needed to synthetize the molecule using single-gene-deletion strains. Subsequently, deletion of the regulator nybW enabled nybomycin production to begin during the growth phase, further boosting the titer and productivity. Based on RNA sequencing along the created strain genealogy, we discovered that the nyb gene cluster was unfavorably downregulated in all advanced producers. This inspired removal of a part and the entire set of the four regulatory genes at the 3'-end nyb of the cluster. The corresponding mutants NYB-8 and NYB-9 exhibited marked further improvement in production, and the deregulated cluster was combined with all beneficial targets from primary metabolism. The best strain, S. albidoflavus NYB-11, accumulated up to 12 mg L-1 nybomycin, fifteenfold more than the basic strain. The absence of native gene clusters in the host and use of a lean minimal medium contributed to a selective production process, providing an important next step toward further development of nybomycin.

Miramides A-D: Identification of Detoxin-like Depsipeptides after Heterologous Expression of a Hybrid NRPS-PKS Gene Cluster from Streptomyces mirabilis Lu17588.

Natural products derived from plants, fungi or bacteria have been used for years in the medicine, agriculture and food industries as they exhibit a variety of beneficial properties, such as antibiotic, antifungal, anticancer, herbicidal and immunosuppressive activities. Compared to synthetic compounds, natural products possess a greater chemical diversity, which is a reason why they are profitable templates for developing pharmaceutical drug candidates and ongoing research on them is inevitable. Performing heterologous expression with unknown gene clusters is the preferred method to activate gene clusters that are not expressed in the wild-type strain under laboratory conditions; thus, this method offers a way to discover new interesting metabolites. Here, we report the gene cluster assembly of a hybrid NRPS-PKS gene cluster from Streptomyces mirabilis Lu17588, which was heterologously expressed in Streptomyces albus Del14. Four new compounds were produced by the obtained strain, which were named miramides A-D. Isolation and structure elucidation revealed similarity of the isolated compounds to the known depsipeptides rimosamides/detoxins.

Novel Fredericamycin Variant Overproduced by a Streptomycin-resistant Streptomyces albus subsp. chlorinus Strain.

Streptomycetes are an important source of natural products potentially applicable in the pharmaceutical industry. Many of these drugs are secondary metabolites whose biosynthetic genes are very often poorly expressed under laboratory cultivation conditions. In many cases, antibiotic-resistant mutants exhibit increased production of natural drugs, which facilitates the identification and isolation of new substances. In this study, we report the induction of a type II polyketide synthase gene cluster in the marine strain Streptomyces albus subsp. chlorinus through the selection of streptomycin-resistant mutants, resulting in overproduction of the novel compound fredericamycin C2 (1). Fredericamycin C2 (1) is structurally related to the potent antitumor drug lead fredericamycin A.

Benzanthric Acid, a Novel Metabolite From Streptomyces albus Del14 Expressing the Nybomycin Gene Cluster.

Streptomycetes constitute a diverse bacterial group able to produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites with potential applications in the pharmacy industry. However, the genes responsible for the biosynthesis of these compounds are very frequently inactive or expressed at very low levels under standard laboratory cultivation conditions. Therefore, the activation or upregulation of secondary metabolite biosynthesis genes is a crucial step for the discovery of new bioactive natural products. We have recently reported the discovery of the biosynthetic genes for the antibiotic nybomycin (nyb genes) in Streptomyces albus subsp. chlorinus. The nyb genes were expressed in the heterologous host Streptomyces albus Del14, which produces not only nybomycin, but also a novel compound. In this study, we describe the isolation, purification, and structure elucidation of the new substance named benzanthric acid.

Heterologous Expression of the Nybomycin Gene Cluster from the Marine Strain Streptomyces albus subsp. chlorinus NRRL B-24108.

Streptomycetes represent an important reservoir of active secondary metabolites with potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry. The gene clusters responsible for their production are often cryptic under laboratory growth conditions. Characterization of these clusters is therefore essential for the discovery of new microbial pharmaceutical drugs. Here, we report the identification of the previously uncharacterized nybomycin gene cluster from the marine actinomycete Streptomyces albus subsp. chlorinus through its heterologous expression. Nybomycin has previously been reported to act against quinolone-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains harboring a mutated gyrA gene but not against those with intact gyrA. The nybomycin-resistant mutants generated from quinolone-resistant mutants have been reported to be caused by a back-mutation in the gyrA gene that restores susceptibility to quinolones. On the basis of gene function assignment from bioinformatics analysis, we suggest a model for nybomycin biosynthesis.