CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF A GENE ENCODING CARMINOMYCIN 4-O-METHYLTRANSFERASE FROM STREPTOMYCES-PEUCETIUS AND ITS EXPRESSION IN ESCHERICHIA-COLI

Sequence analysis of a portion of the Streptomyces peucetius daunorubi cin biosynthetic gene cluster revealed a complete open reading frame ( dnrK) that showed DNA and protein sequence homology to several O-methy ltransferases. Expression of dnrK in Streptomyces lividans and Escheri chia coli was done to show that this gene codes for carminomycin 4-O-m ethyltransferase. The deduced carminomycin 4-O-methyltransferase prote in shows a conserved nucleotide binding site for its S-adenosyl-L-meth ionine cofactor.