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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2005, p. 2294-2302, Vol. 71, No. 5
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.5.2294-2302.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Metabolic Network Analysis of Streptomyces tenebrarius, a Streptomyces Species with an Active Entner-Doudoroff Pathway

Center for Microbial Biotechnology, BioCentrum-DTU, Building 223, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark,¹ Scientific Affairs, Alpharma ApS, Dalslandsgade 11, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark²

Received 12 July 2004/ Accepted 28 November 2004

Streptomyces tenebrarius is an industrially important microorganism, producing an antibiotic complex that mainly consists of the aminoglycosides apramycin, tobramycin carbamate, and kanamycin B carbamate. When S. tenebrarius is used for industrial tobramycin production, kanamycin B carbamate is an unwanted by-product. The two compounds differ only by one hydroxyl group, which is present in kanamycin carbamate but is reduced during biosynthesis of tobramycin. ¹³C metabolic flux analysis was used for elucidating connections between the primary carbon metabolism and the composition of the antibiotic complex. Metabolic flux maps were constructed for the cells grown on minimal medium with glucose or with a glucose-glycerol mixture as the carbon source. The addition of glycerol, which is more reduced than glucose, led to a three-times-greater reduction of the kanamycin portion of the antibiotic complex. The labeling indicated an active Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway, which was previously considered to be nonfunctional in Streptomyces. The activity of the pentose phosphate (PP) pathway was low (10 to 20% of the glucose uptake rate). The fluxes through Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP) and ED pathways were almost evenly distributed during the exponential growth on glucose. During the transition from growth phase to production phase, a metabolic shift was observed, characterized by a decreased flux through the ED pathway and increased fluxes through the EMP and PP pathways. Higher specific NADH and NADPH production rates were calculated in the cultivation on glucose-glycerol, which was associated with a lower percentage of nonreduced antibiotic kanamycin B carbamate.

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