Heterologous Expression of the Nybomycin Gene Cluster from the Marine Strain <i>Streptomyces albus</i> subsp. <i>chlorinus</i> NRRL B-24108

• Main Authors: Marta Rodríguez Estévez, Maksym Myronovskyi, Nils Gummerlich, Suvd Nadmid, Andriy Luzhetskyy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
• Series: Marine Drugs
• Subjects: streptomycetes; secondary metabolites; nybomycin gene cluster; heterologous expression; nybomycin biosynthesis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/16/11/435

Streptomycetes represent an important reservoir of active secondary metabolites with potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry. The gene clusters responsible for their production are often cryptic under laboratory growth conditions. Characterization of these clusters is therefore essential for the discovery of new microbial pharmaceutical drugs. Here, we report the identification of the previously uncharacterized nybomycin gene cluster from the marine actinomycete <i>Streptomyces albus</i> subsp. <i>chlorinus</i> through its heterologous expression. Nybomycin has previously been reported to act against quinolone-resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> strains harboring a mutated <i>gyrA</i> gene but not against those with intact <i>gyrA</i>. The nybomycin-resistant mutants generated from quinolone-resistant mutants have been reported to be caused by a back-mutation in the <i>gyrA</i> gene that restores susceptibility to quinolones. On the basis of gene function assignment from bioinformatics analysis, we suggest a model for nybomycin biosynthesis.