Type: Article

Expanding Primary Metabolism Helps Generate the Metabolic Robustness To Facilitate Antibiotic Biosynthesis in Streptomyces

Jana K Schniete, Pablo Cruz-Morales, Nelly Selem-Mojica, Lorena T Fernández-Martínez, Iain S Hunter, Francisco Barona-Gómez, Paul A Hoskisson;

Abstract:

The expansion of the genetic repertoire of an organism by gene duplication or horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can aid adaptation. Streptomyces bacteria are prolific producers of bioactive specialized metabolites that have adaptive functions in nature and have found extensive utility in human medicine. While the biosynthesis of these specialized metabolites is directed by dedicated biosynthetic gene clusters, little attention has been focused on how these organisms have evolved robustness in their genomes to facilitate the metabolic plasticity required to provide chemical precursors for biosynthesis during the complex metabolic transitions from vegetative growth to specialized metabolite production and sporulation. Here, we examine genetic redundancy in actinobacteria and show that specialized metabolite-producing bacterial families exhibit gene family expansion in primary metabolism. Focusing on a gene …