title: Cloning and characterization of the gene cluster required for beauvericin biosynthesis in Fusarium proliferatum.
abstract: Beauvericin, a cyclohexadepsipeptide-possessing natural product with synergistic antifungal, insecticidal, and cytotoxic activities. We isolated and characterized the fpBeas gene cluster, devoted to beauvericin biosynthesis, from the filamentous fungus Fusarium proliferatum LF061. Targeted inactivation of the F. proliferatum genomic copy of fpBeas abolished the production of beauvericin. Comparative sequence analysis of the FpBEAS showed 74% similarity with the BbBEAS that synthesizes the cyclic trimeric ester beauvericin in Beauveria bassiana, which assembles N-methyl-dipeptidol monomer intermediates by the programmed iterative use of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase modules. Differences between the organization of the beauvericin loci in F. proliferaturm and B. bassiana revealed the mechanism for high production of beauvericin in F. proliferatum. Our work provides new insights into beauvericin biosynthesis, and may lead to beauvericin overproduction and creation of new analogs via synthetic biology approaches.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.forename: Xiaopeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Jintao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Fuhang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Lixin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019295:Computational Biology; D047630:Depsipeptides / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005285:Fermentation; D005670:Fusarium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015723:Gene Library; D005810:Multigene Family; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010802:Phylogeny; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D047630:Depsipeptides; D010455:Peptides; C004456:beauvericin