Goadsporin, a Chemical Substance which Promotes Secondary Metabolism and Morphogenesis in Streptomycetes. I. Purification and Characterization.

Abstract

Streptomycetes, which belong to the Gram-positive bacteria, produce secondary metabolites and sporulate. The timing of starting the secondary metabolite production and the sporulation depends on environmental conditions such as nitrogen and carbon sources. In order to obtain a tool for understanding the regulation mechanism, we carried out screening for chemical substances that induce secondary metabolism and sporulation in streptomycetes and found an active substance from the culture broth of Streptomyces sp. TP-A0584. This substance designated goadsporin promoted the formation of red pigment and sporulation at a concentration of 1 jim in Streptomyces lividans TK23 which does not produce the pigment under normal growth conditions. Goadsporin is an oligopeptide consisting of 19 amino acids with the molecular formula C72H97N19O20S2. Sporulation and/or secondary metabolite production was induced in 36 streptomycetes strains among 42 strains tested. These results suggest that goadsporin acts on a common regulation pathwayfor sporulation and secondary metabolism in streptomycetes and can be a powerful tool to analyze the regulation mechanism.

Antibiotic dialogues: induction of silent biosynthetic gene clusters by exogenous small molecules

“…An early bacterial-bacterial example was the induction of the blue S. lividans pigment, actinorhodin ( Fig. 1, 2) by another Streptomyces strain, found by screening supernatants from 405 strains of actinomycetes (Onaka et al 2001). The signaling compound was isolated and identified as a thiazole/oxazole-containing linear oligopeptide, which the authors named goadsporin (Fig.…”

“…However, which antibiotic, or more generally small molecule, serves as an inducer for a specific strain or biosynthetic gene cluster, needs to be determined experimentally. Consider the example of goadsporin (Onaka et al 2001). It was shown to be a Streptomycesspecific antibiotic at high concentrations but to elicit secondary metabolism at subinhibitory levels.…”

Biosynthesis of Indolocarbazole and Goadsporin, Two Different Heterocyclic Antibiotics Produced by Actinomycetes

“…We developed a novel screening method to detect chemical inducers of secondary metabolite production, and goadsporin was discovered to be a substance that promotes the formation of diffusible red pigment, aerial hyphae, and sporulation in Streptomyces lividans TK23. 18) Goadsporin promotes secondary metabolism and morphogenesis at low concentrations, and induces growth inhibition at high concentrations in actinomycetes. In Streptomyces lividans, goadsporin promotes red pigment production and sporulation at a concentration of 1 mM and inhibits growth at >1 mM.…”

Biosynthesis of Heterocyclic Antibiotics in Actinomycetes and an Approach to Synthesize the Natural Compounds

“…10 mg) of goadsporin absorbed on paper discs. The assay conditions have been described previously 15) . dehydroalanines to generate progoadsporin.…”

“…We detected this compound in 2000 as a secondary metabolite produced by Streptomyces sp. TP-A0584 15,16) . Actinomycetes are well known for their production of a wide variety of polypeptide antibiotics.…”