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Natural phenazines are a class of multifunctional secondary metabolites of bacteria that play an important role in the biocontrol of plant pathogens. In this paper, a novel bioactive phenazine derivative was isolated from Streptomyces lomondensis S015 through silica gel chromatography and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The structure was identified as 1-carboxyl-6-formyl-4,7,9-trihydroxy-phenazine (CFTHP) by NMR spectroscopy in combination with ultraperformance liquid chromatography & mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). CFTHP could inhibit Pythium ultimum , Rhizoctonia solani , Septoria steviae , and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 16, 32, 16, and 16 μg/mL, respectively. A global regulatory gene phoP could positively regulate CFTHP biosynthesis since its production was 3.0-fold enhanced by phoP overexpression and inhibited by phoP deletion in Streptomyces lomondensis S015. These studies illustrated the potential of CFTHP as a promising biopesticide and provided a reference for phenazine production improvement.

Cinnabarinic acid is a valuable phenoxazinone that has broad applications in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and dyeing industries. However, few studies have investigated the production of cinnabarinic acid or its derivatives using genetically engineered microorganisms. Herein, an efficient synthetic pathway of cinnabarinic acid was designed and constructed in Pseudomonas chlororaphis GP72 for the first tim, which was more straightforward and robust than the known eukaryotic biosynthetic pathways. First, we screened and identified trans-2,3-dihydro-3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (DHHA) dehydrogenases from Escherichia coli MG1655 (encoded by entA), Streptomyces sp. NRRL12068 (encoded by bomO) and Streptomyces chartreusis NRRL3882 (encoded by calB 3 ) based on the structural similarity of the substrate and product, and the DHHA dehydrogenase encoded by calB 3 was selected for the synthesis of cinnabarinic acid due to its high DHHA conversion rate. Subsequently, cinnabarinic acid was synthesized by the expression of the DHHA dehydrogenase CalB 3 and the phenoxazinone synthase CotA in the DHHA-producing strain P. chlororaphis GP72, resulting in a cinnabarinic acid titer of 20.3 mg/L at 48 hr. Further fermentation optimization by the addition of Cu 2+ , H 2 O 2 , and with adding glycerol increased cinnabarinic acid titer to 136.2 mg/L in shake flasks. The results indicate that P. chlororaphis GP72 may be engineered as a microbial cell factory to produce cinnabarinic acid or its derivatives from renewable bioresources., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN), a phenazine derivative, is strongly antagonistic to fungal phytopathogens. Pseudomonas chlororaphis HT66 is a PCN-producing, non-pathogenic biocontrol strain, and we obtained the mutant P. chlororaphis P3, which produces 4.7 times more PCN than the wild-type HT66 strain. To reveal the cause of PCN production enhancement in P3 and find potential factors related to PCN biosynthesis, an iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis was used to study the expression changes between the two strains. Of the 452 differentially expressed proteins, most were functionally mapped into PCN biosynthesis pathway or other related metabolisms. The upregulation of proteins, including PhzA/B, PhzD, PhzF, PhzG, and PhzH, involved in PCN biosynthesis was in agreement with the efficient production of PCN in P3. A number of proteins that function primarily in energy production, amino acid metabolism, and secondary metabolism played important roles in PCN biosynthesis. Notably, proteins involved in the uptake and conversion of phosphate, inorganic nitrogen sources, and iron improved the PCN production. Furthermore, the type VI secretion system may participate in the secretion or/and indirect biosynthetic regulation of PCN in P. chlororaphis. This study provides valuable clues to better understand the biosynthesis, excretion and regulation of PCN in Pseudomonas and also provides potential gene targets for further engineering high-yield strains.

In Gram-negative bacteria, global regulator QscR controls the expression of many virulence determinants, secondary metabolites, stationary phase genes and genes involved in biofilm formation through quorum sensing (QS) systems. QscR binds the promoter region of target genes and regulates the gene expression at the transcriptional level. Using homologous recombination technique a chromosomal qscR inactivated mutant strain M-18Q was constructed in Pseudomonas sp. M-18, a strain of plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria, which could inhibit several soilborn phytopathogens by producing secondary metabolites including phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) and pyoluteorin (Plt) in one single strain. To further study the effect of QscR on the synthesis of Plt and PCA in the wild type strain M-18, the dynamic curves of Plt and PCA produced respectively by M-18 and M-18Q strains were measured in both KMB and PPM mediums. The synthesis of PCA was much more activated in the mutant than in the wild type both in KMB and PPM mediums. The PCA production in the mutant strain is four-to-six fold over that in the wild type in the PPM medium, reaching 480 pg/mL, and three-to-five fold in the KMB medium, reaching 140 microg/mL. The synthesis of Plt, however, was not detected in PPM medium and was nearly not influenced by the QscR protein in KMB medium. PCA production was inhibited but Plt biosynthesis was not altered after complementation with qscR gene in trans in the strain of M-18Q. The regulation of qscR gene on PCA production was further confirmed by the analysis of beta-galactosidase activities from the translational phzA '-' lacZ fusion, in which phzA is the first enzyme gene of the phenazine biosynthesis pathway. These results indicate that QscR can control PCA production negatively but not Plt production in M-18, and show that QscR functions as a global regulator to differently regulate the synthesis of PCA and Plt on the gene expression level.

With the designed primers, PCR was carried out using the genomic DNA of Pseudomonas sp. M18 as a template and a 378bp DNA fragment of the rpoS gene was amplified. Then, a 3. 1kb EcoR I -Xho I fragment containing the rpoS gene and its flanking sequence was obtained by screening the genomic DNA library of Pseudomonas sp. M18.A sigma38-subunit-deficient mutant M18S was constructed with insertional gentamycin gene cassette. In PPM medium, the mutant M18S produced 20.4 microg/mL of PCA and 75 microg/mL of Plt. In KMB medium, the mutant M18S produced no PCA and 185.6 microg/mL of Pit. It is obvious that the deficiency of sigma38 subunit in the mutant M18S leads less or no PCA production and much more Plt production than those in the wild type strain M18. PCA and Plt production were restored to the levels in wild type strain after complementation with rpoS gene in trans in strain M18S. Moreover, beta-galactosidase activities of the translational fusions phzA'-'lacZ and pltA'-'lacZ in strain M18S confirmed the effects of sigma38 subunit on PCA and Plt biosynthetic operons. With these results, it is suggested that sigma38 subunit gives a differential impacts on PCA and Plt biosynthesis, i. e, PCA production is positively regulated but Plt production is negatively influenced by sigma38 subunit in Pseudomonas sp. M18.

In previous study, it has already been confirmed that the wild type strain of Pseudomonas sp. M18 isolated from the agricultural soil can produce two antifungal agents phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) and pyoluteorin (Plt). Biosynthesis and secretion of these secondary metabolites contribute to its biological control and suppression of soilborne pathogenic fungi. As main regulators, GacA and RsmA differentially exert global regulation on production of PCA and Plt, respectively. In order to study the regulatory mechanism of secondary metabolites production in Pseudomonas sp. M18, a gacArsmA double mutant, designated as M18GR, was constructed with insertional mutation. Then, the mutant M18G, M18R, M18GR and the wild type strain M18 were inoculated into PPM or King's medium B (KMB), respectively. During cultivation of strain M18 and its derivatives, their PCA and Pit were respectively detected with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that PCA production in the mutant M18GR was lower than that in the mutant M18G and higher than that in the mutant M18R. Plt production in the mutant M18GR was, however, much less than that in the mutant M18R and much more than that in the strain M18 and the mutant M18G. With these observations, it is tempting to suggest that biosynthesis of PCA and Plt regulated by GacA or RsmA seem to occur at posttranscriptional level, not at transcriptional level. This regulation on secondary metabolites seems to be indirectly mediated by other unknown factors. Meanwhile, based on the construction of two translational fusions, gacA'-'lacZ and rsmA'-'lacZ, the assay of beta-galactosidase activities in KMB medium indicated that both GacA and RsmA did not have autoinduction of their own gene expression, respectively. Although GacA did not influence expression of the rsmA gene, RsmA could exert some positive influence on the gacA gene expression in Pseudomonas sp. M18.

At least 5 kinds of N-acyl-homoserine lactones(AHLs) were identified in Pseudomonas sp. M18. They were: N-butyryl-L-homoserine lactone(C4-HSL, BHL), N-hexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone(C6-HSL, HHL), N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone(3-Oxo-C6-HSL, OHHL), N-(3-oxooctanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (3-Oxo-C8-HSL, OOHL) and N-(3-oxodecanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone(3-Oxo-C10-HSL, ODHL). Compared with the wide-type strain M18, the variety of the AHLs in the gacA mutant strain M18G reduced to 4 species with the decreased quantity. But the phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) production was increased by about 2-fold. The product of rhll plays an important role in synthesizing BHL and HHL. The rhll'-'lacZ translational fusion expression plasmid pMEIZ was constructed in vector pME6015 and then was introduced into the wild-type strain M18 and the gacA mutant strain M18G. The galactosidase activity in chromosomal gacA disruption mutant was only 60% of that in the wild-type strain M18. This result suggested that GacA could regulate the rhll expression positively. There was no influence on PCA production by adding exogenous BHL and HHL and both together to the culture of strains M18 and M18G. This result suggested that there was no relation between GacA's negative regulation on PCA production and positive regulation on BHL and HHL synthesis.

Rsm (repressor of secondary metabolite) A is an mRNA binding protein which functions as a global repressor to control multiple genes at the posttranscriptional level. Using homologous recombination technique a chromosomal rsmA inactivated mutant strain M-18R was constructed in Pseudomonas sp. M-18, a strain of plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria, which could inhibit several soilborn phytopathogens by producing secondary metabolites including phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) and pyoluteorin (Plt) in one single strain. To further study the effect of RsmA on the synthesis of Plt and PCA in the wild type strain M-18, the dynamic curves of Plt and PCA produced respectively by M-18 and M-18R were measured in KMB medium under different temperature conditions such as 37 degrees C constant, 28 degrees C constant and nonconstant (37 degrees C 4 hours at first and then 28 degrees C constant) cultivation. The synthesis of both Plt and PCA were almost inhibited in the cultures under the condition of 37 degrees C. At 28 degrees C, however, compared with the wild type strain M-18, the mutant strain produced tenfold amount of Plt, while the production of PCA decreased only about 50%. When cultivated under the nonconstant condition, the amount of Plt produced by M-18R could reach 400 microg/mL while the PCA production was not significantly affected, but in the wild type strain M-18, the amount of Plt production decreased obviously while the PCA production was not affected in comparison with the results at 28 degrees C constant. These results suggest that a temperature sensitive factor exists to function as an activator independent of RsmA to promote the synthesis of Plt in the rsmA mutant strain M-18R while it may bind with RsmA to repress the synthesis of Plt in the wild type strain M-18. But this factor did not exert any affect on the synthesis of PCA.

Pseudomonas sp. M18 is one of the plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria, which can produce fungicides: phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) and pyoluteorin (Plt). The chromosomally gacA inactivated mutant named M18G was constructed and its PCA production was enhanced 31-fold and Plt production was almost blocked completely in KMB medium. To assess the mutual influence of two antibiotics, the plt gene cluster mutant M18T and the phz gene cluster mutant M18GA were then constructed. Non-Plt-producing M18T could synthesize the same amount of PCA as wild type strain. Plt could not be detected in M18GA while PCA production was inhibited dramatically in it. Results indicate that promotion of PCA and inhibition of Plt production in M18G do result from the inactivation of gacA gene. It suggests that the production of antibiotics in strain M18 is differentially mediated by the gacA.