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Development of a yeast cell based method for efficient screening of high yield tacrolimus production strain

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Abstract

Tacrolimus (FK506) is a widely used and clinically important immunosuppressant drug that can be produced by fermentation of Streptomyces tsukubaensis. The industrial strains are typically obtained through multiple rounds of mutagenesis and screening, a labor-intensive process. We have established an efficient yeast cell based screening method for the evolutionary process of high-FK506-yielding strain. The S. tsukubaensis strains of different FK506 yields were tested for zone of growth inhibition of the wild type and calcineurin mutant (cnb1∆) yeast strains. We found that different FK506 yields correspond well to altered yeast growth inhibitions. Based on the combinational inhibition effects of FK506 with different antifungals that have been frequently reported, we also tested the zone of inhibition by addition of fluconazole, amphotericin B and caspofungin to the medium. In the end, for the best screening performance, we systemically evaluated the strategy when different yeast strains and different antifungals were used according to the clarity, size, and divergence of the inhibition circles. Using different yeast strains and antifungals, we successfully broadened the screening spectrum. An efficient high-FK506-yield S. tsukubaensis screening method has been established and optimized.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32070123 and No. 32100079).

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Contributions

Y-KC created the idea and wrote the draft. N-YH and W-YZ implemented the laboratory work. Z-QL and Y-GZ provided financial support and finalized the draft.

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Correspondence to Zhi-Qiang Liu.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests and the manuscript has been approved by all authors for publication.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Cen, YK., He, NY., Zhou, WY. et al. Development of a yeast cell based method for efficient screening of high yield tacrolimus production strain. 3 Biotech 14, 26 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-023-03870-y

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