Abstract
Although knowledge of the genetic control of actinomycete antibiotic production is still scanty, three patterns are apparent. In the first, exemplified by actinorhodin in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), all mutations specifically interrupting the biosynthesis are chromosomal and serve to identify a group of closely linked structural genes, perhaps an operon (Wright and Hopwood, 1976a; Rudd And Hopwood, 1979); plasmids are apparently not involved. In the second type of control, represented by several antibiotics, including oxytetracycline in S. rimosus, chloramphenicol in S. venezuelae, holomycin in S. clavuligerus, and turimycin in S. hygroscopicus (reviewed by Hopwood, 1978), some or all of the structural genes are chromosomal, while putative plasmids influence their expression in an as yet undefined way. Methylenomycin A in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) represents the first example of a third situation in which all the information specifically required for synthesis of the antibiotic is carried by a plasmid, SCP1
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References
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Hornemann, U., Hopwood, D.A. (1981). Biosynthesis of Methylenomycin A: A Plasmid-Determined Antibiotic. In: Corcoran, J.W. (eds) Biosynthesis. Antibiotics, vol 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67724-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67724-3_6
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