Benzodiazepine biosynthesis in Streptomyces refuineus

Anthramycin is a benzodiazepine alkaloid with potent antitumor and antibiotic activity produced by the thermophilic actinomycete Streptomyces refuineus sbsp. thermotolerans. In this study, the complete 32.5 kb gene cluster for the biosynthesis of anthramycin was identified by using a genome-scanning approach, and cluster boundaries were estimated via comparative genomics. A lambda-RED-mediated gene-replacement system was developed to provide supporting evidence for critical biosynthetic genes and to validate the boundaries of the proposed anthramycin gene cluster. Sequence analysis reveals that the 25 open reading frame anthramycin cluster contains genes consistent with the biosynthesis of the two halves of anthramycin: 4 methyl-3-hydroxyanthranilic acid and a "dehydroproline acrylamide" moiety. These nonproteinogenic amino acid precursors are condensed by a two-module nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) terminated by a reductase domain, consistent with the final hemiaminal oxidation state of anthramycin.