Heterologous Expression of Streptomyces albus Genes Linked to an Integrating Element and Activation of Antibiotic Production

Heterologous Expression of Streptomyces albus Genes Linked to an Integrating Element and Activation of Antibiotic Production

Probing Streptomyces albus ATCC 21838 chromosomal DNA with a proline tRNA sequence resulted in an isolation of a putative integrating element in the 6.4-kb EcoRI fragment. It was found that Streptomyces lividans TK-24 transformed with a cloned DNA fragment on a multicopy plasmid, produced a higher level of spore pigment and mycelial red pigment on a regeneration agar. Furthermore, the transformant S. lividans TK-24 produced a markedly increased level of undecylprodigiosin in a broth culture. A nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned region revealed several open reading frames homologous to the integrases of integrating plasmids or temperate bacteriophages, signal-transducing regulatory proteins with a conserved ATP-binding domain, oxidoreductases ($\beta$-ketoacyl reductase), and an AraC-like transcriptional regulator. To examine the effect on antibiotic production, each coding region was overexpressed separately from the other genes in the region in S. lividans TK-24 with; pJHS3044 for the expression of the signal-transducing regulatory protein homologue, pJHS3045 for the homologue of oxidoreductase, and pJHS3051 for the homologue of the AraC-like transcriptional regulator. Phenotypic studies of S. lividans TK-24 strains harboring plasmids for the overexpression of individual genes suggested the following effects of the genes on antibiotic production: The oxidoreductase homologue stimulated the production of actinorhodin and undecylprodigiosin, which was influenced by the culture conditions; the homologue of the AraC-like transcriptional regulator was the most effective factor in antibiotic production within all the culture conditions tested; the signal-transducing regulatory protein homologue repressed the effect due to the homologue of the AraC-like transcriptional regulator, however, the antibiotic production was derepressed upon entering the stationary phase.