Bioassay of Mildiomycin and a Rapid, Cost-Effective Agar Plug Method for Screening High-yielding Mutants of Mildiomycin

Summary A simple, reliable and low-cost agar diffusion bioassay for quantitative determination of mildiomycin was developed using a strain of Rhodotorula rubra AS 2.166 as the indicator organism and potato dextrose agar at pH 7.0 as the test medium. With equivalent precision and accuracy to HPLC analysis, this method was applied to analyse mildiomycin in complex culture broth during the fermentation process. A modified agar plug method based on the bioassay was constructed for rapid and efficient screening of high-yielding mutants of mildiomycin. Within four weeks, a high production strain, the mildiomycin productivity of which was 75.5% higher than the parent strain, was obtained from 15,000 mutants.     

一种适用于链霉菌异源合成基因簇同框缺失的高效方法

【背景】对抗生素生物合成途径的阐明有助于提高目标化合物的产量并开发具有更高活性的新化合物。基因的同框缺失是天然产物生物合成研究的常规手段,通过分析突变菌株积累的中间产物,可以帮助推导天然产物的合成途径及相关基因的功能。天然产物生物合成基因簇的大小一般在20 kb以上,对每个基因进行同框缺失耗时耗力,因此,优化链霉菌来源的基因同框缺失的方法有重要的意义。【目的】基于PCR-targeting重新设计了一套在链霉菌柯斯文库质粒上进行基因同框缺失的方法,实现链霉菌基因在大肠杆菌中快速、高效的基因同框缺失的技术体系。【方法】使用氨苄青霉素抗性基因bla作为PCR-targeting DNA片段的筛选标记,同时使用体外的Pac I酶切和酶连系统代替体内的Flp/FRT系统来介导同框缺失的构建。【结果】利用这种方法,在6 d内完成了米多霉素生物合成基因簇中14个基因的同框缺失。【结论】此方法与传统的PCR-targeting方法相比,构建同框缺失载体的效率明显提高;Pac I识别序列在链霉菌基因组上的稀有性使得此方法在构建抗生素生物合成基因簇必需基因的同框缺失载体上具有普适性。