c N-Acylated homoserine lactone (AHL) lactonases are capable of degrading signal molecules involved in bacterial quorum sensing and therefore represent a new approach to control bacterial infection. Here a gene responsible for the AHL lactonase activity of Bacillus sp. strain AI96, 753 bp in length, was cloned and then expressed in Escherichia coli. The deduced amino acid sequence of Bacillus sp. AI96 AiiA (AiiA AI96 ) is most similar to those of other Bacillus sp. AHL lactonases (ϳ80% sequence identity) and was consequently categorized as a member of the metallo-␤-lactamase superfamily. AiiA AI96 maintains ϳ100% of its activity at 10°C to 40°C at pH 8.0, and it is very stable at 70°C at pH 8.0 for at least 1 h; no other Bacillus AHL lactonase has been found to be stable under these conditions. AiiA AI96 resists digestion by proteases and carp intestinal juice, and it has broad-spectrum substrate specificity. The supplementation of AiiA AI96 into fish feed by oral administration significantly attenuated Aeromonas hydrophila infection in zebrafish. This is the first report of the oral administration of an AHL lactonase for the efficient control of A. hydrophila.

Only a handful of aziridine-containing natural products have been identified out of the more than 100,000 natural products characterized to date. Among this class of compounds, only the azinomycins (azinomycin A and B) and ficellomycin contain an unusual 1-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane ring system, which has been reported to be the reason for theDNAcrosslinking abilities and cytotoxicity of these metabolites. Both families of natural products are produced by Streptomyces species, Streptomyces sahachiroi and Streptomyces ficellus, respectively. Up until recently, much of the work on these molecules has focused on the synthesis of these natural products or their corresponding analogs for in vitro investigations evaluating their DNA selectivity. While one of the most intriguing aspects of these natural products is their biosynthesis, progress made in this area was largely impeded by difficulties with obtaining a reliable culture method and securing a consistent source of these natural products. In this review, we will cover the discovery and biological activity of the azinomycins, their mode of action, related synthetic analogs and biosynthesis, and finish with a discussion on the less studied metabolite, ficellomycin.

Background Our laboratory has constructed a Bacillus licheniformis strain that secretes alkaline protease (AprE) with excellent enzymatic properties. B. licheniformis is generally regarded as safe and has a high industrial exoenzyme secretion capacity, but the host retains some undomesticated characteristic that increase its competitiveness and survival, such as spore-formation, which increases the requirements and difficulties in industrial operations (e.g. sterilization and enzyme activity control). Furthermore, the influence of sporulation on alkaline protease production in B. licheniformis has not been elucidated in detail. Result A series of asporogenic variants of the parent strain were constructed by individually knocking out the master regulator genes ( spo 0A, sig F and sig E) involved in sporulation. Most of the variants formed abortively disporic cells characterized by asymmetric septa at the poles and unable to survive incubation at 75 °C for 10 min. Two of them (Δ sig F and Δ sig E) exhibited superior characteristics in protease production, especially improving the expression of the apr E gene. Under the currently used fermentation conditions, the vegetative production phase of Δ sig F can be prolonged to 72 h, and the highest protease production of Δ sig F reached 29,494 ± 1053 U/mL, which was about 19.7% higher than that of the wild-type strain. Conclusion We first constructed three key sporulation-deficient strain to investigate the effect of sporulation on alkaline protease synthesis. The sig F mutant retained important industrial properties such as facilitating the sterilization process, a prolonged stable phase of enzyme production and slower decreasing trend, which will be superior in energy conservation, simpler operations and target product controlling effect. In summary, the work provides a useful industrial host with preferable characteristics and a novel strategy to enhance the production of protease. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-019-1174-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Aims:  The 3‐amino‐5‐hydroxybenzoic acid (AHBA) synthase is one of the essential and unique enzymes for AHBA biosynthesis. The possibility of screening for ansamycin or AHBA‐related antibiotic‐producing strains from Actinomycetes by targeting an AHBA synthase gene was explored. Methods and Results:  A pair of degenerated primers designed according to the conserved regions of five known AHBA synthases was used to detect AHBA synthase genes within the genomic DNA of Actinomycetes. PCR screening resulted in obtaining 33 AHBA synthase gene‐positive strains from 2000 newly isolated Actinomycetes. Phylogenetic analysis of these gene fragments along with those involved in the biosynthesis of structurally determined ansamycins showed that the genes with close phylogenetic relationships might be involved in the biosynthesis of compounds with the same/similar structures. Four strains have been proved to be actual geldanamycin or rifamycin producers by chemical characterization of their fermentation products. Conclusions:  The results confirmed the feasibility of using the AHBA synthase gene as a probe in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of ansamycin or AHBA‐related antibiotic‐producing strains. Significance and Impact of the Study:  The PCR screening of AHBA synthase gene represents a direct and sensitive molecular method for rapid detection of AHBA‐related antibiotic‐producing strains.

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