title: Characterization of an orphan diterpenoid biosynthetic operon from Salinispora arenicola.
abstract: While more commonly associated with plants than microbes, diterpenoid natural products have been reported to have profound effects in marine microbe-microbe interactions. Intriguingly, the genome of the marine bacterium Salinispora arenicola CNS-205 contains a putative diterpenoid biosynthetic operon, terp1. Here recombinant expression studies are reported, indicating that this three-gene operon leads to the production of isopimara-8,15-dien-19-ol (4). Although 4 is not observed in pure cultures of S. arenicola, it is plausible that the terp1 operon is only expressed under certain physiologically relevant conditions such as in the presence of other marine organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology, Iowa State University , Ames, Iowa 50011 United States.
authors.forename: Meimei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Matthew L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Hillwig
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.forename: Mollie S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Tiernan
authors.forename: Bradley S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Reuben J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D004224:Diterpenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008386:Marine Biology; D008848:Micromonosporaceae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D015394:Molecular Structure; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D009876:Operon / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004224:Diterpenes; C000594629:isopimara-8,15-dien-19-ol