SummaryThe availability of zinc was shown to have a marked influence on the biosynthesis of actinorhodin in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). Production of actinorhodin and undecylprodigiosin was abolished when a novel pleiotropic regulatory gene, absC, was deleted, but only when zinc concentrations were low. AbsC was shown to control expression of the gene cluster encoding production of coelibactin, an uncharacterized non-ribosomally synthesized peptide with predicted siderophore-like activity, and the observed defect in antibiotic production was found to result from elevated expression of this gene cluster. Promoter regions in the coelibactin cluster contain predicted binding motifs for the zinc-responsive regulator Zur, and dual regulation of coelibactin expression by zur and absC was demonstrated using strains engineered to contain deletions in either or both of these genes. An AbsC binding site was identified in a divergent promoter region within the coelibactin biosynthetic gene cluster, adjacent to a putative Zur binding site. Repression of the coelibactin gene cluster by both AbsC and Zur appears to be required to maintain appropriate intracellular levels of zinc in S. coelicolor.

We have developed 22 mouse IgG1 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against Bacteroides fragilis zinc metalloprotease toxins 1 and 2 (BFT1 and BFT2). Mice were immunized with recombinant BFT1 or BFT2 proteins with metalloprotease activity. Eight of the mAbs bind specifically to BFT1. One mAb, 2H6, binds specifically to BFT2. The remaining 13 mAbs bind to both BFT1 and BFT2. The eight BFT1-specific mAbs recognize at least five different epitopes on the toxin. Four of the BFT1-specific mAbs neutralized rBFT1 metalloprotease activity. Only one of these four mAbs, 1D9, neutralizes the cytotoxic effect of BFT1. Here, we describe the development of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) to detect BFT1 or BFT2 toxin in an isotype-specific manner. The sandwich ELISAs have a detection limit of 20 to 40 ng/ml when purified recombinant BFT protein is diluted into PBS. The sandwich ELISA can be used to distinguish and quantify levels of rBFT1 and rBFT2 in stool. This ELISA can be an important tool to investigate the association between BFT expression by enterotoxigenic B. fragilis and diseases such as diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer.

Crystals of recombinant AbsC (subunit MW = 18 313 Da; 158 amino acids), a novel regulator of antibiotic production from Streptomyces coelicolor, were grown by vapour diffusion. The protein crystallizes in space group P2 1 2 1 2 1 , with unit-cell parameters a = 43.53, b = 121.30, c = 143.75 Å . Native data to a resolution of 2.25 Å were recorded at station PX 14.1 (Daresbury) from a single crystal. Preliminary analysis of these data suggests that the asymmetric unit contains four copies of the AbsC monomer, giving an estimated solvent content of 47.0%. AbsC belongs to the MarR family of proteins that mediate ligandresponsive transcriptional control.

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