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LetR is a TetR family transcription factor from Lysobacter controlling antifungal antibiotic biosynthesis

  • Applied genetics and molecular biotechnology
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Abstract

Heat-stable antifungal factor (HSAF) is a newly identified and broad-spectrum antifungal antibiotic from Lysobacter enzymogenes, a ubiquitous environmental proteobacterium. Yet, the regulatory mechanism for HSAF biosynthesis in L. enzymogenes remains poorly understood. Here, we report the identification of a TetR-family protein Le1552 (LetR) from L. enzymogenes strain OH11 that is involved in transcriptional repression of HSAF production. Bacterial one-hybrid and gel mobility shift assays show that LetR directly binds to PHSAF (the promoter region of the HSAF biosynthesis operon). A DNA truncation assay further reveals a core region in PHSAF that is responsible for LetR binding. In-frame deletion of letR in wild-type OH11 is found to significantly increase HSAF levels and key biosynthetic gene transcription, while overexpression of letR in the wild-type background remarkably reduces HSAF levels as well as related gene expression instead. Together, we have identified not only a new regulator for the HSAF biosynthesis but also constructed a higher HSAF-producing deletion strain (ΔletR) of L. enzymogenes, which shall be of great value in promoting HSAF production for pharmaceutical and biological control purposes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Liangcheng Du (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) for the suggestions on manuscript organization. We also thank Prof. Zheng-Guo He from Huazhong Agricultural University (China) for kindly providing the bacterial one-hybrid system. Author contributions: G.Q. and F.L. conceived the project and designed experiments. P.W and H.C carried out experiments. P.W., H. C., G.Q., and F.L. analyzed data. P.W and G.Q. wrote the manuscript draft. F.L. revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Guoliang Qian or Fengquan Liu.

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This study was supported by National Basic Research (973) program of China (2015CB150600 to G.Q.), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Y0201600126 and KYTZ201403 to G.Q.), Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (no. 201303015 to G.Q. and F.L.), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31371981 and 31572046 to G.Q.) and the Jiangsu Provincial Key Technology Support Program (BE2014386 and BE2015354 to F.L.), the Basal Research Funds from JAAS [ZX(15)1006 to F. L.], Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Funds [CX(16)1049 to F. L.), ‘948’ Project of the Ministry of Agriculture (2014-Z24 to F.L.), and National pear industry technology system (CARS-29-09 to F.L. and G.Q.).

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Wang, P., Chen, H., Qian, G. et al. LetR is a TetR family transcription factor from Lysobacter controlling antifungal antibiotic biosynthesis. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 3273–3282 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8117-8

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