Heterologous expression of hybrid type II polyketide synthase system in Streptomyces species

Polyketides are an extensive class of secondary metabolites with diverse molecular structures and biological activities. A plasmid-based minimal polyketide synthase (PKS) expression cassette was constructed using a subset of actinorhodin (act) biosynthetic genes (actI-orf1, actI-orf2, actI-orf3, actIII, actVII, and actIV) from Streptomyces coelicolor, which specify the construction of an orange-fluorescent anthraquinone product aloesaponarin II, a type II polyketide compound derived from one acetyl coenzyme A and 7 malonyl coenzyme A extender units. This system was designed as an indicator pathway in S. parvulus to generate a hybrid type II polyketide compound via gene-specific replacement. The act β-ketoacyl synthase unit (actI-orf1 and actI-orf2) in the expression cassette was specifically replaced with oxytetracycline β-ketoacyl synthase (otcY-orf1 and otcY-orf2). This plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette generated a novel orange-fluorescent compound structurally different from aloesaponarin II in both S. lividans and S. parvulus. In addition, several additional distinctive blue-fluorescent compounds were detected, when this hybrid PKS cassette was expressed in S. coelicolor B78 (actI-orf2 mutant), implying that the expression of plasmid-based hybrid PKS cassette in Streptomyces species should be an efficient way of generating hybrid type II polyketide compounds.