Direct Capture and Heterologous Expression of <i>Salinispora</i> Natural Product Genes for the Biosynthesis of Enterocin

Abstract

Heterologous expression of secondary metabolic pathways is a promising approach for the discovery and characterization of bioactive natural products. Herein we report the first heterologous expression of a natural product from the model marine actinomycete genus <i>Salinispora</i>. Using the recently developed method of yeast-mediated transformation-associated recombination for natural product gene clusters, we captured a type II polyketide synthase pathway from <i>Salinispora pacifica</i> with high homology to the enterocin pathway from <i>Streptomyces maritimus</i> and successfully produced enterocin in two different <i>Streptomyces</i> host strains. This result paves the way for the systematic interrogation of <i>Salinispora</i>’s promising secondary metabolome