The Inhibitor Library manufacturer methoxymalonyl-ACP biosynthesis locus, which is composed of fkbGHIJK, was first reported in the FK520 biosynthetic gene cluster (Wu et al., 2000). The roles of fkbGHIJK orthologs in the biosynthesis of methoxymalonyl-ACP

were then substantiated by genetic and biochemical experiments (Fig. 1b) (Kato et al., 2002; Chan et al., 2006; Dorrestein et al., 2006). The methoxymalonyl-ACP biosynthesis locus is generally colocalized with the related modular PKS gene cluster. In the present study, a gene disruption experiment establishes that a methoxymalonyl-ACP biosynthesis locus (galGHIJK) is involved in the biosynthesis of galbonolide A in S. galbus. It is also shown that orf4, which is proximal to galGHIJK and contains a KAS domain, is involved in the biosynthesis of galbonolides A and B. Notably, there is no multimodular PKS gene cluster flanking Adriamycin these loci, however. Streptomyces galbus KCCM 41354 was acquired from the Korean Culture Center of Microorganisms. Escherichia coli DH5α was used as the host for general subcloning. For total DNA isolation, S. galbus was grown in tryptic soy broth with 10 mM MgCl2·6H2O and 0.5% w/v glycine. Glucose–yeast extract–malt extract (GYM) agar was used for S. galbus spore preparation. Escherichia

coli ET12567 (dam−, dcm−, hsdS−)/pUZ8002 was the nonmethylating plasmid donor strain for the intergeneric conjugative transfer to S. galbus (Flett et al., 1997). GYM agar supplemented with 10 mM MgCl2 was used for the conjugation experiment. Genetic procedures including the gene disruption Suplatast tosilate experiment were performed using standard procedures (Kieser et al., 2000). Southern hybridization

was performed with digoxigenin DNA labeling and a detection kit from Roche Diagnostics (Pleasanton, CA) by following the procedure outlined by the manufacturer. An 800-bp DNA fragment of an fkbI homologue was amplified from the S. galbus chromosome using the PCR and the primer set of 5′-CAGGGCATGGCCGCSTG GACSGT-3′ and 5′-GATGATCTCCATSAGCTTSGCRTC-3′ (Li et al., 2006), which was then cloned into the pGEM-T Easy vector (Promega, Madison, WI). This DNA clone was named pHJK1001. A cosmid library of S. galbus KCCM 41354 genomic DNA was constructed using SuperCos I and the Gigapack III Gold packaging extract kit according to the manufacturer’s handbook (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA). A 3.2-kb KpnI DNA fragment was isolated from the S. galbus genome using the 800-bp fragment in pHJK1001 as a probe, and the presence of methoxymalonyl-ACP biosynthetic genes (galGHI and a truncated galJ) was confirmed by nucleotide sequencing. The 3.2-kb KpnI DNA fragment was then used as a probe in screening the cosmid library, which resulted in the isolation of a positive clone pHJK1011. The 800-bp fragment internal to galI was isolated as an EcoRI fragment from pHJK1001 and ligated into pKC1139 to generate pD-galI, a galI-disruption plasmid. The conjugative plasmid pKC1139 contains an E.