Discovery of 16-Demethylrifamycins by Removing the Predominant Polyketide Biosynthesis Pathway in Micromonospora sp. Strain TP-A0468.

A number of strategies have been developed to mine novel natural products based on biosynthetic gene clusters and there have been dozens of successful cases facilitated by the development of genomic sequencing. During our study on biosynthesis of the antitumor polyketide kosinostatin (KST), we found that the genome of Micromonospora sp. strain TP-A0468, the producer of KST, contains other potential polyketide gene clusters, with no encoded products detected. Deletion of kst cluster led to abolishment of KST and the enrichment of several new compounds, which were isolated and characterized as 16-demethylrifamycins (referred to here as compounds 3 to 6). Transcriptional analysis demonstrated that the expression of the essential genes related to the biosynthesis of compounds 3 to 6 was comparable to the level in the wild-type and in the kst cluster deletion strain. This indicates that the accumulation of these compounds was due to the redirection of metabolic flux rather than transcriptional activation. Genetic disruption, chemical complementation, and bioinformatic analysis revealed that the production of compounds 3 to 6 was accomplished by cross talk between the two distantly placed polyketide gene clusters pks3 and M-rif This finding not only enriches the analogue pool and the biosynthetic diversity of rifamycins but also provides an auxiliary strategy for natural product discovery through genome mining in polyketide-producing microorganisms.IMPORTANCE Natural products are essential in the development of novel clinically used drugs. Discovering new natural products and modifying known compounds are still the two main ways to generate new candidates. Here, we have discovered several rifamycins with varied skeleton structures by redirecting the metabolic flux from the predominant polyketide biosynthetic pathway to the rifamycin pathway in the marine actinomycetes species Micromonospora sp. strain TP-A0468. Rifamycins are indispensable chemotherapeutics in the treatment of various diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, and AIDS-related mycobacterial infections. This study exemplifies a useful method for the discovery of cryptic natural products in genome-sequenced microbes. Moreover, the 16-demethylrifamycins and their genetically manipulable producer provide a new opportunity in the construction of novel rifamycin derivates to aid in the defense against the ever-growing drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Aminoglycoside 2'-N-acetyltransferase genes are universally present in mycobacteria: characterization of the aac(2')-Ic gene from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the aac(2')-Id gene from Mycobacterium smegmatis.

The genus Mycobacterium comprises clinically important pathogens such as M. tuberculosis, which has reemerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality world-wide especially with the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. The use of fast-growing species such as Mycobacterium smegmatis has allowed important advances to be made in the field of mycobacterial genetics and in the study of the mechanisms of resistance in mycobacteria. The isolation of an aminoglycoside-resistance gene from Mycobacterium fortuitum has recently been described. The aac(2')-Ib gene is chromosomally encoded and is present in all isolates of M. fortuitum. The presence of this gene in other mycobacterial species is studied here and genes homologous to that of M. fortuitum have been found in all mycobacterial species studied. In this report, the cloning of the aac(2')-Ic gene from M. tuberculosis H37Rv and the aac(2')-Id gene from M. smegmatis mc(2)155 is described. Southern blot hybridizations have shown that both genes are present in all strains of this species studied to date. In addition, the putative aac(2')-Ie gene has been located in a recent release of the Mycobacterium leprae genome. The expression of the aac(2')-Ic and aac(2')-Id genes has been studied in M. smegmatis and only aac(2')-Id is correlated with aminoglycoside resistance. In order to elucidate the role of the aminoglycoside 2'-N-acetyltransferase genes in mycobacteria and to determine whether they are silent resistance genes or whether they have a secondary role in mycobacterial metabolism, the aac(2')-Id gene from M. smegmatis has been disrupted in the chromosome of M. smegmatis mc(2)155. The disruptant shows an increase in aminoglycoside susceptibility along with a slight increase in the susceptibility to lysozyme.