Use of PCR-targeted mutagenesis to disrupt production of fusaricidin-type antifungal antibiotics in Paenibacillus polymyxa.

ABSTRACT: Paenibacillus polymyxa (formerly Bacillus polymyxa) PKB1 has been identified as a potential agent for biocontrol of blackleg disease of canola, caused by the pathogenic fungus Leptosphaeria maculans. The factors presumed to contribute to disease suppression by strain PKB1 include the production of fusaricidin-type antifungal metabolites that appear around the onset of bacterial sporulation. The fusaricidins are a family of lipopeptide antibiotics consisting of a beta-hydroxy fatty acid linked to a cyclic hexapeptide. Using a reverse genetic approach based on conserved motifs of nonribosomal peptide synthetases, a DNA fragment that appears to encode the first two modules of the putative fusaricidin synthetase (fusA) was isolated from PKB1. To confirm the involvement of fusA in production of

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1932668 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature