• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2019.04a
• /
• pp.34-34
• /
• 2019

About 60% of the present drugs were developed from natural products with unique chemical diversity and biological activities. Hence, discovery of new bioactive compounds from natural products is still important for the drug development. On the other hand, breakthrough made in synthetic biology has also begun to supply us with many useful compounds through manipulation of biosynthetic gene for secondary metabolites. Theoretically, this approach can also be exploited to generate new unnatural compounds by intermixing genes from different biosynthetic pathway. Considering the potential, we are studying about bioactive compounds in natural sources, as well as the biosynthesis of natural products including engineering of the secondary metabolite enzymes to make new compounds in order to construct the methodological basis of the synthetic biology. In this symposium, engineering of secondary metabolite enzymes that are involved in the biosynthesis of plant polyketides to generate new compounds in our laboratory will be mainly introduced.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.127-133
• /
• 2019

The study of the genus Streptomyces is of particular interest because it produces a wide array of clinically important bioactive molecules. The genomic sequencing of many Streptomyces species has revealed unusually large numbers of cytochrome P450 genes, which are involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Many macrolide biosynthetic pathways are catalyzed by a series of enzymes in gene clusters including polyketide and non-ribosomal peptide synthesis. In general, Streptomyces P450 enzymes accelerate the final, post-polyketide synthesis steps to enhance the structural architecture of macrolide chemistry. In this review, we discuss the major Streptomyces P450 enzymes research focused on the biosynthetic processing of macrolide therapeutic agents, with an emphasis on their biochemical mechanisms and structural insights.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.749-754
• /
• 2000

PCR primers were designed based on consensus sequences of dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase, one of the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of deoxysugar. The PCR product (360 bp) was obtained from Thermus caldophilus GK24. Colony hybridization was carried out to the cosmid library constructed from T. caldophilus GK24 genomic DNA by the PCR product DNA fragment. We isolated a cosmid clone (pSMTC-1) that was subcloned to call pKCB series plasmid (BamHI fragments), partially sequenced and analyzed. pKCB80 (4.2 kb-BamHI DNA fragment) of them showed ORFs that was orfA, orfB, orfC and orfD. The orfABCD gene cluster is the deosysugar biosynthetic gene ; orfA (glucose-1-phosphate thymidylytransferase), orfB (dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase), orfC (dTDP-4-keto-L-rhamnose reductase) and orfD (dTDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose 3,5-epimerase). The gene cluster that was related in biosynthesis of dTDP-L-rhamnose was also identified by computer analysis, and we proposed that the biosynthetic pathway of deoxysugar analyzed from DNA sequencing of pKCB80 is from D-glucose-1-phosphate, dTDP-D-glucose, dTDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose via dTDP-4-keto-L-rhamnose to dTDP-L-rhamnose.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.1484-1490
• /
• 2010

In the Streptomyces hygroscopicus JCM4427 geldanamycin biosynthetic gene cluster, five putative regulatory genes were identified by protein homology searching. Among those genes, gel14, gel17, and gel19 are located downstream of polyketide synthase genes. Gel14 and Gel17 are members of the LAL family of transcriptional regulators, including an ATP/GTP-binding domain at the N-terminus and a DNA-binding helix-turn-helix domain at the C-terminus. Gel19 is a member of the TetR family of transcriptional regulators, which generally act to repress transcription. To verify the biological significance of the putative regulators in geldanamycin production, they were individually characterized by gene disruption, genetic complementation, and transcriptional analyses. All three genes were confirmed as positive regulators of geldanamycin production. Specifically, Gel17 and Gel19 are required for gel14 as well as gelA gene expression.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1987.07a
• /
• pp.323-347
• /
• 1987

The R locus of maize in one of several genes that regulate the anthocyanin pigments throughout the body of the plant and seed. The R gene product may regulate pigment deposition by controlling the expression of the flavonoid biosynthetic gene pathway in a tissue-specific manner. To understand the basis for tissue specific regulation and allelic variation at R, the molecular study has been done by cloning a portion of the R complex by transposon tagging with Ac. R specific probe were cloned from the R-nj mutant induced by Ac insertion mutagenesis. From southern analysis of R-r complex using the R-nj probe, the structure of R-r was proposed that R-r containes the three elements, (P)(Q)(S). These elements may organize as the inversion triplication model which (S) sequence was inverted in relation to (P) and (Q). The R-sc derivated from R-mb or R-nj was cloned with R-nj probe, and molecular genetical data showed that R-sc containes tissue specific and tissue nonspecific area, and the sequencing of R-sc are progressed now.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.81-95
• /
• 2003

Carotenoids are synthesized from the plastidic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP)/pyruvate pathway in isoprenoids biosynthetic system of plants. They play a crucial role in light harvesting, work as photoprotective agents in photosynthesis of nature, and are also responsible for the red, orange and yellow colors of fruits and flowers in plants. In addition to biological actions of carotenoids as antioxidants and natural pigments, they are essential components of human diet as a source of vitamin A. It has been also suggested that some kinds of carotenoids might provide protection against cancer and heart disease as human medicines. In this article, we review the commercial applications on the basis of biological functions of carotenoids, summarize the studies of genes involved in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, and introduce recent results achieved in metabolic engineering of carotenoids. This effort for understanding the carotenoids metabolism will make us to increase the total carotenoid contents of crop plants, direct the carotenoid biosynthetic machinery towards other useful carotenoids, and produce a new array of carotenoids by further metabolizing the new precursors that are created when one or two key enzymes in carotenoid biosynthetic pathway are exchanged through gene manipulation in the near future.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.649-654
• /
• 2006

A standard type II polyketide synthase (PKS) gene cluster was isolated while attempting to clone the biosynthetic gene for lipstatin from Streptomyces toxytricini NRRL 15,443. This result was observed using a Southern blot of a PstI-digested S. toxytricini chromosomal DNA library with a 444 bp amplified probe of a ketosynthase (KS) gene fragment. Four open reading frames [thioesterase (TE), $\beta$-ketoacyl systhase (KAS), chain length factor (CLF), and acyl carrier protein (ACP)], were identified through the nucleotide sequence determination and analysis of a 4.5 kb cloned DNA fragment. In order to confirm the involvement of a cloned gene in lipstatin biosynthesis, a gene disruption experiment for the KS gene was performed. However, the resulting gene disruptant did not show any significant difference in lipstatin production when compared to wild-type S. toxytricini. This result suggests that lipstatin may not be synthesized by a type II PKS.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.830-839
• /
• 2007

Pradimicins are potent antifungal antibiotics having an unusual dihydrobenzo[$\alpha$]naphthacenequinone aglycone substituted with D-alanine and sugars. Pradimicins are polyketide antibiotics produced by Actinomadura hibisca P157-2. The gene cluster involved in the biosynthesis of pradimicins was cloned and sequenced. The pradimicin gene cluster was localized to a 39-kb DNA segment and its involvement in the biosynthesis of pradimicin was proven by gene inactivation of prmA and prmB(ketosynthases $\alpha\;and\;\beta$). The pradimicin gene cluster consists of 28 open reading frames(ORFs), encoding a type II polyketide synthase(PKS), the enzymes involved in sugar biosynthesis and tailoring enzymes as well as two resistance proteins. The deduced proteins showed strong similarities to the previously validated gene clusters of angucyclic polyketides such as rubromycin, griseorhodin, and fredericamycin. From the pradimicin gene cluster, prmP3 encoding a component of the acetyl-CoA carboxylase complex was disrupted. The production levels of pradimicins of the resulting mutants decreased to 62% of the level produced by the wild-type strain, which indicate that the acetyl-CoA carboxylase gene would have a significant role in the production of pradimicins through supplying the extender unit precursor, malonyl-CoA.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.16 no.8
• /
• pp.1311-1315
• /
• 2006

Aminocyclitol antibiotic validamycin A, a prime control agent for sheath blight disease of rice plants, is biosynthesized by Streptomyces hygroscopicus var. limoneus. Within the validamycin biosynthetic gene cluster, vldBC forms an operon of vldABC with vidA, the gene encoding 2-epi-5-epi-valiolone synthase. Biochemical studies, employing the recombinant proteins from Escherichia coli, established VldB and VldC as D-glucose $\alpha$-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase and glucokinase, respectively. This finding substantiates that the validamycin biosynthetic gene cluster harbors genes encoding the enzymes for UDP-glucose formation from glucose. Therefore, we propose that validamycin biosynthesis employs its own catalysts to generate UDP-glucose, but not depending on the primary metabolism.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.812-818
• /
• 2001

Alginate and alginate-derived oligomannuronate enhanced penicillin production in shake flask and fermentor cultures of Penicillium chrysogenum Wis 54-1255 (containing a single copy of the penicillin gene cluster) and in the high producter strain P. chrysogenum AS-P-99 (containing multiple copies of the penicillin gene cluster). Alginate was not used as a single carbon source by P. chryogenum. The stimulatory effect on penicillin production was observed in a defined medium and, to a lower extent, in a complex production medium containing corn steep liquor. Alginate-supplemented cells showed higher transcript levels of the three penicillin biosynthetic genes, pcbAB, pcbC, and penDE, than cells grown in the absence of alginate. The promoters of the pcbAB, pcbC, and penDE genes were coupled to the reporter lacZ gene and introduced as monocopy constructions in P. chrysogenum Wis 54-1225 npe10 by targeted integration in the pyrG locus; the reporter ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity expressed from the three promoters was stimulated by alginate added to the culture medium of the transformants. These results indicate that the stimulation of penicillin production by alginate was derived from an increase in the transcriptional activity of the penicillin biosynthesis genes. The induction by alginate of the transcription of the three penicillin biosynthetic genes is good example of the coordinated induction of secondary metabolism genes by elicitors of plant (or microbial) origin.