Effects of acuC on the growth development and spinosad biosynthesis of Saccharopolyspora spinosa

BACKGROUND: Acetoin utilization protein (acuC) is a type I histone deacetylase which is highly conserved in bacteria. The acuC gene is related to the acetylation/deacetylation posttranslational modification (PTM) system in S. spinosa. Spinosyns, the secondary metabolites produced by Saccharopolyspora spinosa, are the active ingredients in a family of insect control agents. However, the specific functions and influences of acuC protein in S. spinosa are yet to be characterized. RESULTS: The knockout strain and overexpression strain were constructed separately with the shuttle vector pOJ260. The production of spinosyns A and D from S. spinosa-acuC were 105.02 mg/L and 20.63 mg/L, which were 1.82-fold and 1.63-fold higher than those of the wild-type strain (57.76 mg/L and 12.64 mg/L), respectively. The production of spinosyns A and D from S. spinosa-ΔacuC were 32.78 mg/L and 10.89 mg/L, respectively. The qRT-PCR results of three selected genes (bldD, ssgA and whiA) confirmed that the overexpression of acuC affected the capacities of mycelial differentiation and sporulation. Comparative proteomics analysis was performed on these strains to investigate the underlying mechanism leading to the enhancement of spinosad yield. CONCLUSIONS: This study first systematically analysed the effects of overexpression acuC on the growth of S. spinosa and the production of spinosad. The results identify the differentially expressed proteins and provide evidences to understand the acetylation metabolic mechanisms which can lead to the increase of secondary metabolites. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-021-01630-2.