Discovery of Alternative Producers of the Enediyne Antitumor Antibiotic C-1027 with High Titers

J Nat Prod. 2018 Mar 23;81(3):594-599. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b01013. Epub 2018 Jan 18.

Abstract

The potent cytotoxicity and unique mode of action make the enediyne antitumor antibiotic C-1027 an exquisite drug candidate for anticancer chemotherapy. However, clinical development of C-1027 has been hampered by its low titer from the original producer Streptomyces globisporus C-1027. Here we report three new C-1027 alternative producers, Streptomyces sp. CB00657, CB02329, and CB03608, from The Scripps Research Institute actinomycetes strain collection. Together with the previously disclosed Streptomyces sp. CB02366 strain, four C-1027 alternative producers with C-1027 titers of up to 11-fold higher than the original producer have been discovered. The five C-1027 producers, isolated from distant geographic locations, are distinct Streptomyces strains based on morphology and taxonomy. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and Southern analysis of the five C-1027 producers reveal that their C-1027 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are all located on giant plasmids of varying sizes. The high nucleotide sequence similarity among the five C-1027 BGCs implies that they most likely have evolved from a common ancestor.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aminoglycosides / genetics*
  • Antibiotics, Antineoplastic / metabolism*
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • Enediynes / metabolism*
  • Multigene Family / genetics
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Streptomyces / genetics

Substances

  • Aminoglycosides
  • Antibiotics, Antineoplastic
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Enediynes
  • C 1027