SUMMARY Drug-resistant bacterial pathogens pose an urgent public-health crisis. Here, we report the discovery, from microbial-extract screening, of a nucleoside-analog inhibitor that inhibits bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) and exhibits antibacterial activity against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens: pseudouridimycin (PUM). PUM is a natural product comprising a formamidinylated, N-hydroxylated Gly-Gln dipeptide conjugated to 6′-amino-pseudouridine. PUM potently and selectively inhibits bacterial RNAP in vitro, inhibits bacterial growth in culture, and clears infection in a mouse model of Streptococcus pyogenes peritonitis. PUM inhibits RNAP through a binding site on RNAP (the NTP addition site) and mechanism (competition with UTP for occupancy of the NTP addition site) that differ from those of the RNAP inhibitor and current antibacterial drug rifampin (Rif). PUM exhibits additive antibacterial activity when co-administered with Rif, exhibits no cross-resistance with Rif, and exhibits a spontaneous resistance rate an order-of-magnitude lower than that of Rif. PUM is a highly promising lead for antibacterial therapy.

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We report a metabolomic analysis of Streptomyces sp. ID38640, a soil isolate that produces the bacterial RNA polymerase inhibitor pseudouridimycin. The analysis was performed on the wild type, on three newly constructed and seven previously reported mutant strains disabled in different genes required for pseudouridimycin biosynthesis. The results indicate that Streptomyces sp. ID38640 is able to produce, in addition to lydicamycins and deferroxiamines, as previously reported, also the lassopeptide ulleungdin, the non-ribosomal peptide antipain and the osmoprotectant ectoine. The corresponding biosynthetic gene clusters were readily identified in the strain genome. We also detected the known compound pyridindolol, for which we propose a previously unreported biosynthetic gene cluster, as well as three families of unknown metabolites. Remarkably, the levels of most metabolites varied strongly in the different mutant strains, an observation that enabled detection of metabolites unnoticed in the wild type. Systematic investigation of the accumulated metabolites in the ten different pum mutants identified shed further light on pseudouridimycin biosynthesis. We also show that several Streptomyces strains, able to produce pseudouridimycin, have distinct genetic relationship and metabolic profile with ID38640.

DNA replication of phage-plasmid P4 proceeds bidirectionally from the ori1 site (previously named ori), but requires a second cis-acting region, crr. Replication depends on the product of the P4 alpha gene, a protein with primase and helicase activity, that binds both ori1 and crr. A negative regulator of P4 DNA replication, the Cnr protein, is required for copy number control of plasmid P4. Using a plasmid complementation test for replication, we found that two replicons, both dependent on the alpha gene product, coexist in P4. The first replicon is made by the cnr and alpha genes and the ori1 and crr sites. The second is limited to the alpha and crr region. Thus, in the absence of the ori1 region, replication can initiate at a different site. By deletion mapping, a cis-acting region, ori2, essential for replication of the alpha-crr replicon was mapped within a 270-bp fragment in the first half of the alpha gene. The ori2 site was found to be dispensable in a replicon that contains ori1. A construct that besides crr and alpha carries also the cnr gene was unable to replicate, suggesting that Cnr not only controls replication from ori1, but also silences ori2.