Characterization of a pathway-specific activator of edeine biosynthesis and improved edeine production by its overexpression in Brevibacillus brevis

Jie Du; Cuiyang Zhang; Qingshan Long; Liang Zhang; Wu Chen; Qingshu Liu

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1022476

Characterization of a pathway-specific activator of edeine biosynthesis and improved edeine production by its overexpression in Brevibacillus brevis

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Oct 25:13:1022476. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1022476. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jie Du¹, Cuiyang Zhang¹, Qingshan Long¹, Liang Zhang², Wu Chen², Qingshu Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Hunan Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Agricultural Microbiology Application, Hunan Institute of Microbiology, Changsha, China.
² College of Plant Protection, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Edeines are a group of non-ribosomal antibacterial peptides produced by Brevibacillus brevis. Due to the significant antibacterial properties of edeines, increasing edeine yield is of great interest in biomedical research. Herein, we identified that EdeB, a member of the ParB protein family, significantly improved edeine production in B. brevis. First, overexpression of edeB in B. brevis X23 increased edeine production by 92.27%. Second, in vitro bacteriostasis experiment showed that edeB-deletion mutant exhibited less antibacterial activity. Third, RT-qPCR assay demonstrated that the expression of edeA, edeQ, and edeK, which are key components of the edeine biosynthesis pathway, in edeB-deletion mutant X23(ΔedeB) was significantly lower than that in wild-type B. brevis strain X23. Finally, electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that EdeB directly bound to the promoter region of the edeine biosynthetic gene cluster (ede BGC), suggesting that EdeB improves edeine production through interaction with ede BGC in B. brevis.

Keywords: Brevibacillus brevis; EdeB; ParB protein family; edeines; gene overexpression.