This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Amnuaykanjanasin, A.
Right arrow Articles by Tanticharoen, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Amnuaykanjanasin, A.
Right arrow Articles by Tanticharoen, M.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Amnuaykanjanasin, A.
Right arrow Articles by Tanticharoen, M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2009, p. 3721-3732, Vol. 75, No. 11
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02744-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Insect-Specific Polyketide Synthases (PKSs), Potential PKS-Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase Hybrids, and Novel PKS Clades in Tropical Fungi{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Alongkorn Amnuaykanjanasin,1* Suranat Phonghanpot,2 Nattapong Sengpanich,1 Supapon Cheevadhanarak,2 and Morakot Tanticharoen1

National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, 113 Paholyothin Road, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand,1 School of Bioresources and Technology, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok 10140, Thailand2

Received 2 December 2008/ Accepted 28 March 2009

Polyketides draw much attention because of their potential use in pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications. This study identifies an abundant pool of polyketide synthase (PKS) genes from local isolates of tropical fungi found in Thailand in three different ecological niches: insect pathogens, marine inhabitants, and lichen mutualists. We detected 149 PKS genes from 48 fungi using PCR with PKS-specific degenerate primers. We identified and classified 283 additional PKS genes from 13 fungal genomes. Phylogenetic analysis of all these PKS sequences the comprising ketosynthase (KS) conserved region and the KS-acyltransferase interdomain region yielded results very similar to those for phylogenies of the KS domain and suggested a number of remarkable points. (i) Twelve PKS genes amplified from 12 different insect-pathogenic fungi form a tight cluster, although along with two PKS genes extracted from genomes of Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus terreus, in reducing clade III. Some of these insect-specific fungal PKSs are nearly identical. (ii) We identified 38 new PKS-nonribosomal peptide synthetase hybrid genes in reducing clade II. (iii) Four distinct clades were discovered with more than 75% bootstrap support. We propose to designate the novel clade D1 with 100% bootstrap support "reducing clade V." The newly cloned PKS genes from these tropical fungi should provide useful and diverse genetic resources for future research on the characterization of polyketide compounds synthesized by these enzymes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, 113 Paholyothin Rd., Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. Phone: 662 5646700. Fax: 662 5646707. E-mail: alongkorn{at}biotec.or.th

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 3 April 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2009, p. 3721-3732, Vol. 75, No. 11
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02744-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»