Biosynthesis of colored prodiginines from a new marine bacterium Hahella chejuensis KCTC2396

Abstract

Hahella chejuensis KcrC2396 produces red pignent in the cell envelope, and the pigment was suspected to be composed of at least three components The main red-colored part was purified and identified as prodigiosin by NMR analysis, and the other was confirmed as norprodigiosin and undecylprodigiosin by com뼈ring with the well-known pigments from Sen'atia marcescense Nima and Streptomyces coelic%r A3(2), respectively. Interestingly, the three prodiginines (general name for a mother structure having three pyrrolyl rings with ditferent a&igrave

kyl substituents) have not yet repoπed to be produced by same microorganism. Base on current data, KcrC2396 is thought to possess two separate pathways for the production of prodiginine. As prodigiosin is a promising drug showing immunosuppressive and algicidal etfects, the prodigiosin-biosynthetic pathway by KcrC2396 was studied through the structural analyses of accumulated intermediates. In addition, a fosmid clone containing the entire gene clusters for prodigiosin was sequenced anda detailed analysis ofthis clone is now in progress This work was supported by a grant from the 21 C Frontier Microbial Genomics and Applications Center.