Accumulation of a Bioactive Benzoisochromanequinone Compound Kalafungin by a Wild Type Antitumor-Medermycin-Producing Streptomycete Strain

Medermycin and kalafungin, two antibacterial and antitumor antibiotics isolated from different streptomycetes, share an identical polyketide skeleton core. The present study reported the discovery of kalafungin in a medermycin-producing streptomycete strain for the first time. A mutant strain obtained through UV mutagenesis showed a 3-fold increase in the production of this antibiotic, compared to the wild type strain. Heterologous expression experiments suggested that its production was severely controlled by the gene cluster for medermycin biosynthesis. In all, these findings suggested that kalafungin and medermycin could be accumulated by the same streptomycete and share their biosynthetic pathway to some extent in this strain.