NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GENE, LPA-14, RESPONSIBLE FOR BIOSYNTHESIS OF THE LIPOPEPTIDE ANTIBIOTICS ITURIN-A AND SURFACTIN FROM BACILLUS-SUBTILIS RB14
Cc. Huang et al., NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GENE, LPA-14, RESPONSIBLE FOR BIOSYNTHESIS OF THE LIPOPEPTIDE ANTIBIOTICS ITURIN-A AND SURFACTIN FROM BACILLUS-SUBTILIS RB14, Journal of fermentation and bioengineering, 76(6), 1993, pp. 445-450
Bacillus subtilis RB14 is a coproducer of the lipopeptide antibiotics
iturin A and surfactin. Iturin A and surfactin have a similar structur
e consisting of a seven-amino-acid cyclic peptide, linked by either hy
droxy or ester peptide linkage, respectively, to the fatty acid part.
A 10-kb fragment responsible for the production of the lipopeptide ant
ibiotics iturin A and surfactin in B. subtilis RB14 was minimized and
the nucleotide sequence of the region essential for the synthesis of t
he lipopeptides was determined. A large open reading frame consisting
of 224 amino acid residues was found. The gene, designated as lpa-14 (
lipopeptide antibiotic production of RB14), showed high homology with
sfp and psf-1 (regulators for surfactin production in B. subtilis and
Bacillus pumilus, respectively) and an unknown open reading frame, orf
X, in the upstream region of the peptide antibiotic gramicidin S biosy
nthesis operon of Bacillus brevis. The biosynthesis of surfactin and o
f iturin A was shown to be coregulated by the same gene, lpa-14. It is
suggested that a common regulation system might exist among these gen
es for the production of peptide antibiotics in Bacillus species.