ISOLATION OF A GENE ESSENTIAL FOR BIOSYNTHESIS OF THE LIPOPEPTIDE ANTIBIOTICS PLIPASTATIN B1 AND SURFACTIN IN BACILLUS-SUBTILIS YB8

Bacillus subtilis YB8 was found to produce the lipopeptide antibiotics surfactin and plipastatin B1. A gene, lpa-8, required for the product ion of both lipopeptides was cloned from strain YB8. When this gene wa s 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 sequ ence analysis of the region essential for the production of the peptid es revealed the presence of a large open reading frame. The deduced am ino acid sequence of lpa-8 (224 amino acid residues) showed sequence s imilarity to that of sfp (from surfactin-producing B. subtilis), lpa-1 4 (from iturin A- and surfactin-producing B. subtilis), psf-1 (from su rfactin-producing Bacillus pumilus), gsp (from gramicidin-S-producing Bacillus brevis), and entD (from siderophore-enterobactin-producing Es cherichia coli), which are able to complement a defect in the sfp gene and promote production of the lipopeptide antibiotic surfactin. The s equence similarity among these proteins and the product similarity of cyclic peptides suggests that they might be involved in the biosynthes is or secretion of the peptides.