Journal article
Deciphering the genetic basis for polyketide variation among mycobacteria producing mycolactones
SJ Pidot, H Hong, T Seemann, JL Porter, MJ Yip, A Men, M Johnson, P Wilson, JK Davies, PF Leadlay, TP Stinear
BMC Genomics | BMC | Published : 2008
Open access
Abstract
Background: Mycolactones are immunosuppressive and cytotoxic polyketides, comprising five naturally occurring structural variants (named A/B, C, D, E and F), produced by different species of very closely related mycobacteria including the human pathogen, Mycobacterium ulcerans. In M. ulcerans strain Agy99, mycolactone A/B is produced by three highly homologous type I polyketide megasynthases (PKS), whose genes (mlsA1: 51 kb, mlsA2: 7.2 kb and mlsB: 42 kb) are found on a 174 kb plasmid, known as pMUM001. Results: We report here comparative genomic analysis of pMUM001, the complete DNA sequence of a 190 kb megaplasmid (pMUM002) from Mycobacterium liflandii 128FXT and partial sequence of two ad..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Grant Jenkin for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank Pamela Small and Martha Rhodes for provision of bacteria. This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (TPS) and the Wellcome Trust (HH, PFL).