Complete sequence of biosynthetic gene cluster responsible for producing triostin A and evaluation of quinomycin-type antibiotics from Streptomyces triostinicus.

Streptomyces triostinicus produces triostin A, an antitumor antibiotic, as its major secondary metabolite. Surprisingly, this strain also produced a trace amount of echinomycin. We sequenced the entire triostin A biosynthetic gene cluster from S. triostinicus, and found that this 36 kilobase-long gene cluster contained an ORF homologous to ecm18 that encodes a thioacetal-forming enzyme responsible for the triostin A-to-echinomycin bioconversion. These findings indicate that, unlike previously thought, S. triostinicus is capable of producing not only triostin A but also echinomycin. Our observation suggests potential value in careful re-analysis for metabolites from previously characterized natural product producers with the current technologies.