Expression and characterization of trehalose biosynthetic modules in the adjacent locus of the salbostatin gene cluster

The pseudodisaccharide salbostatin, which consists of valienamine linked to 2-amino-1,5-anhydro-2-deoxyglucitol, is a strong trehalase inhibitor. From our Streptomyces albus ATCC 21838 genomic library, we identified thirty-two ORFs in a 37-kb gene cluster. Twenty-one genes are supposed to be a complete set of modules responsible for the salbostatin biosynthesis. Through sequence analysis of the gene cluster, some of the upstream gene products (Sa1B, Sa1C, Sa1D, Sa1E, and Sa1F) revealed functional resemblance with trehalose biosynthetic enzymes. On the basis of this rationale, we isolated the five genes (salB, salC, salD, salE, and salF) from the S. albus ATCC 21838 and cloned them into the expression vector pWHM3. We demonstrated the noticeable expression and accumulation of trehalose, using only the five upstream biosynthetic gene cluster of salbostatin, in the transformed Streptomyces lividans TK24. Finally, 490 mg/l trehalose was produced by fermentation of the transformant with sucrose-depleted R2YE media.