Biosynthesis of a natural polyketide-isoprenoid hybrid compound, furaquinocin A: identification and heterologous expression of the gene cluster.

ABSTRACT: Furaquinocin (FQ) A, produced by Streptomyces sp. strain KO-3988, is a natural polyketide-isoprenoid hybrid compound that exhibits a potent antitumor activity. As a first step toward understanding the biosynthetic machinery of this unique and pharmaceutically useful compound, we have cloned an FQ A biosynthetic gene cluster by taking advantage of the fact that an isoprenoid biosynthetic gene cluster generally exists in flanking regions of the mevalonate (MV) pathway gene cluster in actinomycetes. Interestingly, Streptomyces sp. strain KO-3988 was the first example of a microorganism equipped with two distinct mevalonate pathway gene clusters. We were able to localize a 25-kb DNA region that harbored FQ A biosynthetic genes (fur genes) in both the upstream and downstream regions of one of t

SUBMITTER: Kawasaki T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1367238 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature