title: Co-cultivation of Sorangium cellulosum strains affects cellular growth and biosynthesis of secondary metabolite epothilones.
abstract: Sorangium cellulosum, a cellulolytic myxobacterium, is capable of producing a variety of bioactive secondary metabolites. Epothilones are anti-eukaryotic secondary metabolites produced by some S. cellulosum strains. In this study, we analyzed interactions between 12 strains of S. cellulosum consisting of epothilone-producers and non-epothilone producers isolated from two distinct soil habitats. Co-cultivation on filter papers showed that different Sorangium strains inhibited one another's growth, whereas epothilone production by the producing strains changed markedly for most (73%) pairwise mixtures. Using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction, we demonstrated that the expression of epothilone biosynthetic genes in the epothilone producers typically changed significantly when these bacteria were mixed with non-producing strains. The results indicated that intraspecies interactions between different S. cellulosum strains not only inhibited the growth of partners, but also could change epothilone production.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
authors.forename: Peng-fei
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shu-guang
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhi-feng
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hong-wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhi-hong
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yue-zhong
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D034261:Epothilones / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D009231:Myxococcales / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D034261:Epothilones
keywords: Sorangium cellulosum; co-cultivation; growth inhibition; intraspecies interactions; production of epothilones