Heterologous production of glidobactins/luminmycins in Escherichia coli Nissle containing the glidobactin biosynthetic gene cluster from Burkholderia DSM7029

Abstract

Natural product peptide-based proteasome inhibitors show great potential as anticancer drugs. Here we have cloned the biosynthetic gene cluster of a potent proteasome inhibitor-glidobactin from Burkholderia DSM7029-and successfully detected glidobactins/luminmycins in E. coli Nissle. We have also improved the yield of glidobactin A tenfold by promoter change in a heterologous host. In addition, two new biosynthetic intermediates were identified by comparative MS/MS fragmentation analysis. Identification of acyclic luminmycin E implies substrate specificity of the TE domain for cyclization. The establishment of a heterologous expression system for syrbactins provided the basis for the generation of new syrbactins as proteasome inhibitors by molecular engineering, but the TE domain's specificity cannot be ignored.

Keywords: biosynthesis; gene expression; glidobactin; luminmycin; natural products; promoter exchange.