Genetics of zwittermicin a production by Bacillus cereus.

ABSTRACT: Zwittermicin A represents a new chemical class of antibiotic and has diverse biological activities, including suppression of oomycete diseases of plants and potentiation of the insecticidal activity of Bacillus thuringiensis. To identify genes involved in zwittermicin A production, we generated 4,800 transposon mutants of B. cereus UW101C and screened them for zwittermicin A accumulation. Nine mutants did not produce detectable zwittermicin A, and one mutant produced eightfold more than the parent strain. The DNA flanking the transposon insertions in six of the nine nonproducing mutants contains significant sequence similarity to genes involved in peptide and polyketide antibiotic biosynthesis. The mutant that overproduced zwittermicin A contained a transposon insertion immediately upstrea

SUBMITTER: Emmert EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC321298 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature