Christiansen G, Dittmann E, Via Ordorika L, Rippka R, Herdman M, Börner T
Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität, Chausseestrasse 117, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
Arch Microbiol. 2001 Dec;176(6):452-8. doi: 10.1007/s002030100349. Epub 2001 Sep 27.
Previous studies largely carried out with environmental samples or axenic and non-axenic cultures suggested that cyanobacteria may be a rich source of hitherto unexplored bioactive compounds. This has been confirmed in the present study by a screening of 146 axenic strains from the Pasteur Culture Collection (PCC) of cyanobacteria. Use of degenerate PCR primers, designed on the basis of conserved sequence motifs in the aminoacyl-adenylation domain of peptide synthetases, revealed the presence of the corresponding genes in the majority (75.3%) of the strains examined. Among unicellular cyanobacteria, only Chamaesiphon sp. strain PCC 6605, two strains of Gloeocapsa and most Microcystis isolates (22 out of 24) contained these genes; no amplicons were detected for any members of the genera Cyanothece, Gloeobacter and Gloeothece and the genetically diverse representatives of Synechococcus and Synechocystis. By contrast, eight out of ten pleurocapsalean members, 16 out of 25 oscillatorian strains, and all but two of the 63 filamentous heterocystous cyanobacteria tested gave positive amplification results. This information will be highly valuable for further exploring the corresponding cyanobacterial peptides and for elucidating the bioactivity of such non-ribosomally synthesized molecules.
以往主要针对环境样本或无菌及非无菌培养物开展的研究表明，蓝细菌可能是迄今尚未探索的生物活性化合物的丰富来源。本研究通过对来自巴斯德蓝细菌培养物保藏中心（PCC）的146株无菌菌株进行筛选，证实了这一点。基于肽合成酶氨酰腺苷化结构域中的保守序列基序设计的简并PCR引物，揭示在所检测的大多数菌株（75.3%）中存在相应基因。在单细胞蓝细菌中，只有Chamaesiphon sp.菌株PCC 6605、两株粘球藻属菌株和大多数微囊藻分离株（24株中的22株）含有这些基因；对于蓝杆藻属、集球藻属和胶鞘藻属的任何成员以及聚球藻属和聚球藻属的遗传多样性代表菌株，均未检测到扩增子。相比之下，所测试的10株皮果藻目成员中有8株、25株颤藻目菌株中有16株以及63株丝状有异形胞蓝细菌中除两株外的所有菌株均给出了阳性扩增结果。这些信息对于进一步探索相应的蓝细菌肽以及阐明此类非核糖体合成分子的生物活性将具有极高的价值。
