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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1998, p. 3939-3947, Vol. 64, No. 10
Department of
Microbiology,1
Department of Plant
Pathology,3 and
Complex Carbohydrate
Research Center,2 University of Georgia,
Athens, Georgia 30602
Received 26 March 1998/Accepted 29 May 1998
Genetic manipulation of fluorescent pseudomonads has provided major
insight into their production of antifungal molecules and their role in
biological control of plant disease. Burkholderia cepacia
also produces antifungal activities, but its biological control
activity is much less well characterized, in part due to difficulties
in applying genetic tools. Here we report genetic and biochemical
characterization of a soil isolate of B. cepacia relating
to its production of an unusual antibiotic that is very active against
a variety of soil fungi. Purification and preliminary structural
analyses suggest that this antibiotic (called AFC-BC11) is a novel
lipopeptide associated largely with the cell membrane. Analysis of
conditions for optimal production of AFC-BC11 indicated stringent
environmental regulation of its synthesis. Furthermore, we show that
production of AFC-BC11 is largely responsible for the ability of
B. cepacia BC11 to effectively control the damping-off of
cotton caused by the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani in a gnotobiotic system. Using Tn5 mutagenesis, we identified,
cloned, and characterized a region of the genome of strain BC11 that is required for production of this antifungal metabolite. DNA sequence analysis suggested that this region encodes proteins directly involved
in the production of a nonribosomally synthesized lipopeptide.
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Characterization of Genes Involved in Biosynthesis of a Novel
Antibiotic from Burkholderia cepacia BC11 and Their Role
in Biological Control of Rhizoctonia solani
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology, Biological Sciences Bldg., University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602; Phone: (706) 542-0512. Fax: (706) 542-2674. E-mail: Schell{at}arches.uga.edu.
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