Search

Bacterial strains grown in the presence of low concentrations of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) exhibit significant qualitative and quantitative alterations in the production of secondary metabolites. This effect was confirmed for a variety of biosynthetic families, including chloramphenicol (chorismate), thiostrepton (peptide) and tetracenomycin (polyketide), and for natural and recombinant strains of streptomycetes; a similar effect was seen with antibiotic-producing bacilli such as B. circulans. Increase in antibiotic production was not the result of a change in the growth rate of these organisms, since yields of biomass were similar in media with and without DMSO (up to 3%). We suggest that the addition of compounds such as DMSO provides a means of examining the full biosynthetic potential of microbes and might be used to promote secondary metabolite production. The mode of action of DMSO is not known, but in the cases studied it may act at the level of translation.

The development of microorganisms with improved antibiotic production is an important goal in the commercialization of new pharmaceuticals or in lowering the cost of established drugs. We report a way to achieve this for biosynthetic intermediates of an antibiotic made by the polyketide pathway whose earliest steps involve a Type II multienzyme complex. Introduction of the tcmKLM beta-ketoacyl: ACP synthase and acyl carrier protein (ACP) genes or just the tcmM ACP gene into the tetracenomycin (Tcm) C-producing Streptomyces glaucescens wild-type strain, or its tcmN or tcmO blocked mutants, on high copy vectors under the control of strong promoters caused a 2 to 30-fold overproduction of Tcm D3 and some other biosynthetic intermediates (or shunt products) and a 25 to 30% increase in Tcm C production relative to the control strains carrying the plasmid vector only. However, Tcm C production was not greater than that obtained with the vector-free wild-type strain. The unexpected effect of increased ACP on Tcm D3 production suggests that the level of this protein can influence either the activity or level of the three other components of the Tcm polyketide synthase.

A limited biosynthetic conversion of some known anthracyclinones using a specific daunorubicin-nonproducing mutant provided four new anthracycline antibiotics: 1-Hydroxy-10-methoxycarbonyl-13-deoxocarminomycin; 1-hydroxy-13-deoxocarminomycin; 1-hydroxyoxaunomycin and 6-deoxyoxaunomycin. Their isolation and purification from bioconversion broth, structural determination and antitumor activities against leukemic L1210 cells are described.

Aklavinone is an aglycone of aclacinomycin A which is an important antitumor drug. Genes for the biosynthesis of aklavinone were cloned from Streptomyces galilaeus 3AR-33, an aklavinone-producing mutant, by use of the actI and actIII polyketide synthase gene probes. Restriction mapping and Southern analysis of the DNA cloned in a lambda phage vector established that the DNA represented three different regions of the S. galilaeus 3AR-33 genome that contained 3.4, 2.5, and 4.1 kb BamHI fragments which hybridized with actIII. Of those, only the 3.4 kb fragment also hybridized with actI. Complementation experiments with specifically blocked mutants confirmed that the cloned 3.4 kb BamHI fragment contains the genes required for the early stage of polyketide synthesis in aklavinone biosynthesis.

Streptomyces nogalater, UC-2783, and Streptomyces peucetius var. caesius, IMRU-3920/UC-5633, catalyze ketonic carbonyl reduction of steffimycinone (1, Scheme 1). Using cell-free preparations of S. nogalater, the process of ketonic carbonyl reduction has been shown to be TPNH linked. The product, steffimycinol (2), is reduced further by Aeromonas hydrophila, 2C/UC-6303, by the process of microaerophilic conversion of anthracyclinones previously reported1,2) with the result being the formation of 7-deoxysteffimycinol (3). The products (2 and 3) were isolated by extraction from the fermentations followed by chromatographic purification. Identification was by comparison of various physical properties and spectral data with those of authentic materials obtained by chemical means. Catalytic activity of the crude enzyme preparations of S. nogalater was lost by dialysis by restored by addition of TPNH although not by addition of DPNH demonstrating TPNH dependence. The reaction rate increased linearly with added crude enzyme protein up to 4 mg/ml and was highest between pH 6.5 and 7.0.

Auramycinone was subjected to microbial conversion by Streptomyces coeruleorubidus ATCC 31276, a producer of baumycins. As a result, auramycinone was converted to 11-hydroxyauramycinone and 9-methyl-10-hydroxydaunomycin (feudomycin D). The results implicate auramycinone as a presumptive intermediate in the biosynthesis of 9-methyl-10-hydroxydaunomycin by S. coeruleorubidus.

Aclacinomycin A was observed to effect the thermal denaturation of DNA and to increase Tm. The visible absorption spectrum of the antibiotic showed bathochromic and hypochromic shifts upon reaction with native and heat-denatured DNA. [14C]Aclacinomycin A was demonstrated by equilibrium dialysis to bind to DNA. Native calf thymus DNA appeared to possess one binding site per ca. 6 nucleotides for the antibiotic with an apparent association constant of ca. 1.2 x 10(6) M-1. Heat-denatured DNA showed much less affinity for the antibiotic: one binding site per ca. 6 nucleotides with an apparent binding constant of ca. 3.5 x 10(4) M-1. The difference of association constants between double- and single-stranded DNAs suggested that the antibiotic may be intercalated between base pairs of the DNA double helix. [14C]Aclacinomycin A exhibited higher affinity for poly(dAdT) than for poly(dIdC). The antibiotic showed a significant difference spectrum with porcine tubulin, indicating an interaction with tubulin. The binding to tubulin was also demontstrated by equilibrium dialysis of [14C]aclacinomycin A and tubulin.

By using a strain of Streptomyces willmorii, daunorubicin (daunomycin) was stereoselectively converted into N-acetyl-13(S)-dihydrodaunomycin and bisanhydro-13-dihydrodaunomycinone. The absolute stereochemistry of the new chiral center in N-acetyl-13(S)-dihydrodaunomycin was established by means of nuclear Overhauser effect measured in the 9,13-O-isopropylidene derivative.

An aclacinomycin-negative mutant strain KE303 which required aklavinone aglycone for the production of anthracycline antibiotics was derived from Streptomyces galilaeus, and employed for the glycosidation of various anthracyclinones. epsilon- gamma- and beta-Rhodomycinones, epsilon-isorhodomycinone, epsilon- and beta-pyrromycinones and chemically modified aklavinones were found to be glycosidated to the biologically active anthracyclines, when they were fed to the growing culture. However, the feeding of daunomycinone, 13-deoxydaunomycinone, adriamycinone and steffimycinone did not yield any glycoside. The bioconversion of presumptive precursor glycosides revealed that aclacinomycin A is biosynthesized by the step-wise glycosidation from aklavinone vai aklavin and MA144 S1.

A sensitive, simple and selective reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method was applied to the determination of aclacinomycin A (ACM) and its metabolites in plasma. The chromatography was performed on a microparticulate phenethyl derivative of silica using a mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.03 M ammonium formate buffer (pH 5.0), (50:50, v/v) and monitoring with fluorescence detector (excitation 435 nm-emission 505 nm). High reproducibility and linear calibration curves were obtained from 20 ng/ml to 100 ng/ml of ACM and its metabolites in plasma by use of internal standard methods.

It has been shown that steffimycin (1) and steffmycin B (2) are reduced at the C-10 carbonyl by Actinoplanes utahensis, UC-5885 and Chaetomium sp., UC-4634, respectively. Using cell-free extracts of the latter organism, the optimum conversion time, pH, and enzyme concentration have been determined for the conversion of 2 to 4. The biochemical conversion of 2 has been found to be TPNH linked.

A specific oxidoreductase converting aclacinomycin A to a new analog, aclacinomycin Y, was purified to apparent homogeneity from the culture filtrate of aclacinomycin-producing microorganisms. The isolated enzyme was a weakly acidic protein (isoelectric point, 5.9) with a molecular weight of about 72,000. The enzymatic reaction requires molecular oxygen and has a pH optimum at 5.5. The enzyme catalyzed an oxidation of the terminal sugar, L-cinerulose, of the trisaccharide moiety of aclacinomycin A to L-aculose (2,3,6-trideoxyhex-2-enopyranos-4-ulose) with removal of two electrons. Studies of substrate specificity revealed that the enzyme is an oxidoreductase capable of modifying anthracyclic triglycosides by oxidizing their terminal sugars.

New anthracycline antibiotics, 1-hydroxy-13-dihydrodaunomycin and N-formyl-1-hydroxy-13-dihydrodaunomycin were biosynthesized by a blocked mutant of Streptomyces coeruleorubidus ME130-A4 from epsilon-pyrromycinone or epsilon-isorhodomycinone.

DNA binding characteristics of ditrisarubicin B were studied by the fluorescence titration technique. Ditrisarubicin B bound to calf thymus DNA with an affinity higher than any we have ever seen among anthracyclines. The apparent association constant (Kapp) of ditrisarubicin B was 2.36 X 10(8) M-1, which is 22.7 times larger than that of doxorubicin. The apparent number of binding sites (napp) of ditrisarubicin B per nucleotide of DNA was 0.164, and this value is identical with that of doxorubicin. Betaclamycin A, which has a trisaccharide chain at C-7 but no carbohydrate at C-10 in the aglycone, interacted with DNA to give a Kapp of 5.92 X 10(6) M-1 and napp of 0.178. These results suggest to us that the high affinity of ditrisarubicin B for DNA is caused by the existence of a glycosidic chain at C-10.

Microbial transformation experiments were performed using 13-ketone-blocked daunomycinone derivatives which were converted into the corresponding carminomycinone derivatives by microbial O-demethylation.

Streptomyces galilaeus OBB-111 and its blocked mutant were found to convert aclacinomycin B and related anthracycline glycosides of the B type to the corresponding A-type glycosides. Only the cell fraction of cultures of S. galilaeus OBB-111 was capable of catalyzing the reaction. The activity was associated with growth but disappeared before the start of rapid production of aclacinomycins A and B.

Baumycin-negative mutants of Streptomyces coeruleorubidus ME130-A4 do not convert daunomycinone to daunomycin and baumycins. They biosynthesize daunomycin from aklavinone and epsilon-rhodomycinone, indicating the glycosidation of the aglycone before the synthesis of daunomycinone. The biosynthetic pathway from epsilon-rhodomycinone to daunomycin was further confirmed by studying the bioconversion of anthracyclinones and anthracyclines, which are presumed to be intermediates.