Isolation of Novel Pseudonocardia Polyene Biosynthetic Genes via Genomics-based PCR Screening

The polyene antibiotics are a family of most promising antifungal polyketide compounds, typically produced by actinomycetes species. Using the polyene CYP-specific PCR screening with served actinomycetes genomic DNAs, Pseudonocardia autotrophica strain was identified to contain a unique polyene-specific CYP gene. The genomic DNA library screening using the polyene-specific CYP gene probe revealed the positive cosmid clone containing an approximately 34.5 kb DNA fragment revealed a total of seven complete and two incomplete open reading frame (ORFs), which are highly homologous but unique to previously-known polyene biosynthetic genes. These results suggest that the polyene-specific screening approach should be an efficient way of isolating potectially-valuable cryptic polyene biosynthetic gene cluster from various rare actinomycetes.