Novel mechanism of metabolic co-regulation coordinates the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in Pseudomonas protegens

作者：Yan Qing; Philmus Benjamin; Chang Jeff H; Loper Joyce E

来源：eLife, 2017, 6: e22835.

DOI：10.7554/eLife.22835

Metabolic co-regulation between biosynthetic pathways for secondary metabolites is common in microbes and can play an important role in microbial interactions. Here, we describe a novel mechanism of metabolic co-regulation in which an intermediate in one pathway is converted into signals that activate a second pathway. Our study focused on the co-regulation of 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) and pyoluteorin, two antimicrobial metabolites produced by the soil bacterium Pseudomonas protegens. We show that an intermediate in DAPG biosynthesis, phloroglucinol, is transformed by a halogenase encoded in the pyoluteorin gene cluster into mono and di-chlorinated phloroglucinols. The chlorinated phloroglucinols function as intra- and intercellular signals that induce the expression of pyoluteorin biosynthetic genes, pyoluteorin production, and pyoluteorin-mediated inhibition of the plant-pathogenic bacterium Erwinia amylovora. This metabolic co-regulation provides a strategy for P. protegens to optimize the deployment of secondary metabolites with distinct roles in cooperative and competitive microbial interactions.

• 出版日期2017-3-6