Biosynthesis of kalafungin in Streptomyces tanashiensis

The mutants of Streptomyces tanashiensis strain Kala, which were specifically blocked in the synthesis of the benzoisochromanequinone antibiotic kalafungin, were isolated and classified into seven phenotypic classes on the basis of the antibiotic activity and cosynthetic properties. The polarity of cosynthetic reactions and the production of kalafungin by a converter strain showed that the seven mutant classes could be arranged in the most probable linear sequence of biosynthetic blocks. Since kalafungin, which closely resembles the undimerized form of actinorhodin, was accumulated in one of the biosynthetically blocked mutants of the actinorhodin-producing Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), the cosynthesis between kalafungin-nonproducing mutants of S. tanashiensis and actinorhodin-nonproducing mutants of S. coelicolor was performed. The results of these experiments showed that the early steps in kalafungin biosynthesis in S. tanashiensis and actinorhodin biosynthesis in S. coelicolor were similar, but the entire biosynthetic pathway of kalafungin in these two streptomycetes was not identical.