• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2009

MAPSI(Management and Analysis for Polyketide Synthase Type I) has been developed to offer computational analysis methods to detect type I PKS(polyketide synthase) gene clusters in genome sequences. MAPSI provides a genome analysis component, which detects PKS gene clusters by identifying domains in proteins of a genome. MAPSI also contains databases on polyketides and genome annotation data, as well as analytic components such as new PKS assembly and domain analysis. The polyketide data and analysis component are accessible through Web interfaces and are displayed with diverse information. MAPSI, which was developed to aid researchers studying type I polyketides, provides diverse components to access and analyze polyketide information and should become a very powerful computational tool for polyketide research. The system can be extended through further studies of factors related to the biological activities of polyketides.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.632-648
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• 2002

The term polyketide defines a class of natural products synthesized through the successive condensation of small arboxylic acids, which results in products containing multiple carbonyl or hydroxyl groups, each separated by one arbon atom, as in the structural element CH$_2$C(=0)CH$_2$CH(OE)CH$_2$C(=0)-. Plant flavonoids, fungal aflatoxins, as well as undreds of compounds of different structures that can inhibit the growth of bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites or human umor cells are included in this diverse group. Some of antifungal polyketides also have immunosuppresive activity. olyketides can vary widely in structure, and the diversity of polyketide structures reflects the wide variety of their iological properties. This review focuses on the biosynthesis of polyketides and recent progress in combinatorial iosynthesis of new hybrid polyketide compounds.

• Mycobiology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2014

Usnea longissima has a long history of use as a traditional medicine. Several bioactive compounds, primarily belonging to the polyketide family, have been isolated from U. longissima. However, the genes for the biosynthesis of these compounds are yet to be identified. In the present study, three different types of non-reducing polyketide synthases (UlPKS2, UlPKS4, and UlPKS6) were identified from a cultured lichen-forming fungus of U. longissima. Phylogenetic analysis of product template domains showed that UlPKS2 and UlPKS4 belong to group IV, which includes the non-reducing polyketide synthases with an methyltransferase (MeT) domain that are involved in methylorcinol-based compound synthesis; UlPKS6 was found to belong to group I, which includes the non-reducing polyketide synthases that synthesize single aromatic ring polyketides, such as orsellinic acid. Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis demonstrated that UlPKS2 and UlPKS4 were upregulated by sucrose; UlPKS6 was downregulated by asparagine, glycine, and alanine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.819-822
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• 2003

Polyketides are an extensive class of secondary metabolites with diverse molecular structures and biological activities. A plasmid-based minimal polyketide synthase (PKS) expression cassette was constructed using a subset of actinorhodin (act) biosynthetic genes (actI-orfl, actI-orf2, actI-orf3, actIII, actⅦ, and actIV) from Streptomyces coelicolor, which specify the construction of an orange-fluorescent anthraquinone product aloesaponarin II, a type II polyketide compound derived from one acetyl coenzyme A and 7 malonyl coenzyme A extender units. This system was designed as an indicator pathway in S. parvulus to generate a hybrid type II polyketide compound via gene-specific replacement. The act ${\beta}-ketoacyl$ synthase unit (actI-orfl and actI-orf2) in the expression cassette was specifically replaced with oxytetracycline ${\beta}-ketoacyl$ synthase otcY-orfl and otcY-orf2). This plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette generated a novel orange-fluorescent compound structurally different from aloesaponarin II in both S. lividans and S. parvulus. In addition, several additional distinctive blue-fluorescent compounds were detected, when this hybrid PKS cassette was expressed in S. coelicolor B78 (actI-orf2 mutant), implying that the expression of plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette in Streptomyces species should be an efficient way of generating hybrid type II polyketide compounds.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.613-619
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• 2003

The polyketide backbone of rifamycin B is assembled by the type I rifamycin polyketide synthase (PKS) encoded by the rifA-rifE genes. In order to produce novel analogs of rifamycin via engineering of the PKS genes, inactivation of the ${\beta}-ketoacyl:acyl$ carrier protein reductase (KR) domain in module 8 of rifD, by site-specific mutagenesis of the NADPH binding site, was attempted. Module 8 contains a nonfunctional dehydratase (DH) domain and a functional KR domain that is involved in the reduction of the ${\beta}-carbonyl$ group, resulting in the C-21 hydroxyl of rifamycin B. This mutant strain produced linear polyketides, from tetraketide to octaketide, which were also produced by a rifD-disruption mutant as a consequence of premature termination of the polyketide assembly. Another attempt to replace the DH domain of module 7, which has been considered nonfunctional, with a functional homolog derived from module 7 of rapamycin-producing PKS also resulted in the production of linear polyketides, including the heptaketide intermediate and its precursors. Premature release of the carbon chain assembly intermediates is an unusual property of the rifamycin PKS. that is not seen in other PKSs such as the erythromycin PKS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.18-25
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• 2002

The pikromycin biosynthetic system in Streptomyces venezuleae is unique for its ability to produce two groups of antibiotics that include the 12-membered ring macrolides methymycin and neomethymycin, and the 14-membered ring macrolides narbomycin and pikromycin. The metabolic pathway also contains two post polyketide-modification enzymes, a glycosyltransferase and P450 hydroxylase that have unusually broad substrate specificities. In order to explore further the substrate flexibility of these enzymes a series of hybrid polyketide synthases were constructed and their metabolic products characterized. The plasmid-based replacement of the multifunctional protein subunits of the pikromycin PKS in S. venezuelae by the corresponding subunits from heterologous modular PKSs resulted in recombinant strains that produce both 12- and 14-membered ring macrolactones with predicted structural alterations. In all cases, novel macrolactones were produced and further modified by the DesVII glycosyltransferase and PikC hydroxylase leading to biologically active macrolide structures. These results demonstrate that hybrid PKSs in S. venezuelae can produce a multiplicity of new macrolactones that are modified further by the highly flexible DesVII glycosyltransferase and PikC hydroxylase tailoring enzymes. This work demonstrates the unique capacity of the S. venezuelae pikromycin pathway to expand the toolbox of combinatorial biosynthesis and to accelerate the creation of novel biologically active natural products. The polyketide backbone of rifamycin B is assembled through successive condensation and ${\beta}$-carbonyl processing of the extender units by the modular rifamycin PKS. The eighth module, in the RifD protein, contains nonfunctional DH domain and functional KR domain, which specify the reduction of the ${\beta}$-carbonyl group resulting in the C-21 bydroxyl of rifamycin B. A four amino acid substitution and one amino acid deletion were introduced in the putative NADPH binding motif in the proposed KR domain encoded by rifD. This strategy of mutation was based on the amino acid sequences of the corresponding motif of the KR domain of module 3 in the RifA protein, which is believed dysfunctional, so as to introduce a minimum alteration and retain the reading frame intact, yet ensure loss of function. The resulting strain produces linear polyketides, from tetraketide to octaketide, which are also produced by a rifD disrupted mutant as a consequence of premature termination of polyketide assembly. Much of the structural diversity within the polyketide superfamily of natural products is due to the ability of PKSs to vary the reduction level of every other alternate carbon atom in the backbone. Thus, the ability to introduce heterologous reductive segments such as ketoreductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enoylreductase (ER) into modules that naturally lack these activities would increase the power of the combinatorial biosynthetic toolbox. The dehydratase domain of module 7 of the rifamycin PKS, which is predicted to be nonfunctional in view of the sequence of the apparent active site, was replaced with its functional homolog from module 7 of rapamycin-producing polyketide synthase. The resulting mutant strain behaved like a rifC disrupted mutant, i.e., it accumulated the heptaketide intermediate and its precursors. This result points out a major difficulty we have encountered with all the Amycolatopsis mediterranei strain containing hybrid polyketide synthases: all the engineered strains prepared so far accumulate a plethora of products derived from the polyketide chain assembly intermediates as major products instead of just analogs of rifamycin B or its ansamycin precursors.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.1105-1110
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• 2015

Phleichrome, a pigment produced by the phytopathogenic fungus Cladosporium phlei, is a fungal perylenequinone whose photodynamic activity has been studied intensively. To determine the biological function of phleichrome and to engineer a strain with enhanced production of phleichrome, we identified the gene responsible for the synthesis of phleichrome. Structural comparison of phleichrome with other fungal perylenequinones suggested that phleichrome is synthesized via polyketide pathway. We recently identified four different polyketide synthase (PKS) genes encompassing three major clades of fungal PKSs that differ with respect to reducing conditions for the polyketide product. Based on in silico analysis of cloned genes, we hypothesized that the non-reducing PKS gene, Cppks1, is involved in phleichrome biosynthesis. Increased accumulation of Cppks1 transcript was observed in response to supplementation with the application of synthetic inducer cyclo-(${_L}-Pro-{_L}-Phe$). In addition, heterologous expression of the Cppks1 gene in Cryphonectria parasitica resulted in the production of phleichrome. These results provide convincing evidence that the Cppks1 gene is responsible for the biosynthesis of phleichrome.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.79-80
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• 2003

A lot of polyketide antibiotics have been isolated from natural sources like microorganism, fungi and plant. The polyketide natural products have biologically and medically important activities, including antibacterial, anticancer, antiparasitic, and immunosuppressant properties. The diversified activities of polyketides are originated from their structural variety of which have been took advantage by several research groups for development of new drugs. (omitted)

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 1995

Streptomyces albus wild type ATCC 21838 produced salinomycin, polyether antibiotic. To clone genes related salinomycin production, a genomic library was screened using actI as a DNA hybridization probe. pWHM 210 was isolated, which contained an approximately 24 kb of insert DNA. A 3.8 kb region in the 24 kb insert DNA was hybridized to actI and the nucleotide sequence of this region was determinied. Two open reading frames found in the same direction were homologous to genes for $\beta$-keto acyl synthase/acyl transferase and chain length determining factor in type II PKS (polyketide synthase). The genes were components of minimal type II PKS genes, highly conserved and showed the strong simiarity to other type II PKS genes known today.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.420-422
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• 2005

TMC (Tautomycetin) is a liner polyketide immunosuppressive antifungal compound produced by Streptomyces spp. Inhibition of T cell proliferation with TMC was observed highly efficient at 100-fold lower than those needed to achieve maximal inhibition with cyclosporin A. To elucidate the biosynthetic pathway of TMC, a genomic DNA library was constructed using a E. coil-Streptomyces shuttle cosmid vector, pOJ446. The DNA libraries were screened by colony blot hybridization using several polyketide ${\beta}-ketosynthase$ (KS) probes amplified from TMC-producing Streptomyces genomic DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), of which the degenerate primers were designed based on the highly conserved sequences present in KS domains of various type I polyketide synthase genes in Streptomyces species. This library construction and screening approach led to the isolation of several positive cosmid clones representing type I polyketide biosynthetic gene clusters. In addition, a Streptomyces regulatory gene called afsR2 (a global regulatory gene stimulating antibiotic production in both S. coelicolor and S. lividans) was successfully integrated into the TMC-producing Streptomyces chromosome via E. coil-Streptomyces heterologous conjugation mehtod. The more detailed results of production improvement and genetic characterization of TMC-producing Streptomyces spp. will be discussed.