title: Isolation of a gene essential for biosynthesis of the lipopeptide antibiotics plipastatin B1 and surfactin in Bacillus subtilis YB8.
abstract: Bacillus subtilis YB8 was found to produce the lipopeptide antibiotics surfactin and plipastatin B1. A gene, lpa-8, required for the production of both lipopeptides was cloned from strain YB8. When this gene was inactivated in strain YB8, neither surfactin nor plipastatin B1 was produced. However, the defective strain transformed with an intact lpa-8 gene had restored ability to produce both peptides. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the region essential for the production of the peptides revealed the presence of a large open reading frame. The deduced amino acid sequence of lpa-8 (224 amino acid residues) showed sequence similarity to that of sfp (from surfactin-producing B. subtilis), lpa-14 (from iturin A- and surfactin-producing B. subtilis), psf-1 (from surfactin-producing Bacillus pumilus), gsp (from gramicidin-S-producing Bacillus brevis), and entD (from siderophore-enterobactin-producing Escherichia coli), which are able to complement a defect in the sfp gene and promote production of the lipopeptide antibiotic surfactin. The sequence similarity among these proteins and the product similarity of cyclic peptides suggests that they might be involved in the biosynthesis or secretion of the peptides.
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Resources Utilization, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuge
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shoda
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D055666:Lipopeptides; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010455:Peptides; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000935:Antifungal Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005227:Fatty Acids; D055666:Lipopeptides; D009842:Oligopeptides; D010455:Peptides; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; C049901:plipastatin; C009365:surfactin peptide; C013579:iturin A