• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.534-538
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• 2007

Avermectin and its analogs are major commercial antiparasitic agents in the fields of animal health, agriculture, and human infections. To increase our understanding about the genetic mechanism underlying avermectin overproduction, comparative transcriptomes were analyzed between the low producer S. avermitilis ATCC31267 and the high producer S. avermitilis ATCC31780 via a S. avermitilis whole genome chip. The comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that fifty S. avermitilis genes were expressed at least two-fold higher in S. avermitilis ATCC31780. In particular, all the avermectin biosynthetic genes, including polyketide synthase (PKS) genes and an avermectin pathway-specific regulatory gene, were less expressed in the low producer S. avermitilis ATCC31267. The present results imply that avermectin overproduction in S. avermitilis ATCC31780 could be attributed to the previously unidentified fifty genes reported here and increased transcription levels of avermectin PKS genes.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.152-156
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• 2005

In this study, we tried to optimize the composition of medium and culture conditions for the total avermectin and avermectin B1 production from S. avermitilis, which is a natural producer of avermectin family. Among various carbon and organic nitrogen sources tested, fructose and malt extract were most effective on avermectin production. Next addition of polyethylene glycol and $K_{2}HPO_{4}$ in medium significantly improved the intracellular contents of avermectin. Thus the optimized medium composition was 50 g/L fructose, 30 g/L malt extract, 5 g/L casamino acid, 2.5 g/L PEG 3,350, and 1 g/L $K_{2}HPO_{4}$, which increased the avermection production from10 to 478 mg/L. The contents of avermectin B1 complex was about 50% of the total amount of avermectin.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 1992

Avermectin B1(abamectin) is an very effective acaricide/insecticide. Because it is applied at low rates, the resultant residue level would be quite low and this requires highly sensitive analytical method. In this study, three analytical methods for avermectin $B1_a$, were compared in view of detectability and sensitivity. The first analytical method was an HPLC method employing the fluorescence detection of avermectin. The second analytical technique to quantitate avermectin $B1_a$, and its photodegradative delta 8,9-isomer employed trifluoroacetic anhydride and 1-methylimidazole in DMF. The new method was the modification of trifluorescence method. The average recoveries of avermectin $B1_a$ for the concentration range from 1 and 10 ng/g in whole apple fruit by fluorescence method were 90.3% and 88.2% respectively. In trifluorescence method, the recoveries of the avermectin $B1_a$ and delta 8,9-isomer were 100.7% and 94.7% in concentration from 5 ng/g and 25 ng/g. The average recoveries of 5 ng and 25 ng/g in the newly modified method were 95.0, 99.0. 96.0, 92.8% in whole apple and soil respectively.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.211-215
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• 2006

AfsR2 is a global regulatory protein involved in the stimulation of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in various Streptomyces species including avermectin-producing S. avermitilis. Among several AfsR2-dependent genes identified from the comparative proteomics, the polyribonucleotide nucleotidyltransferase (PNP) and the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) genes were previously proposed to regulate the actinorhodin production in S. lividans upon afsR2 over-expression positively and negatively, respectively. To show the biological significance of the PNP and GPD genes in the S. avermitilis strains, these two genes were functionally expressed in both the wild-type and the avermectin-overproducing mutant strains. The PNP gene expression stimulated secondary metabolite production in the wild-type S. avermitilis ATCC31267, but not in the avermectin-overproducing S. avermitilis ATCC31780. Interestingly, the GDP gene expression stimulated secondary metabolite production by 4-fold in the wild-type S. avermitilis ATCC31267 and by 2.5-fold in the avermectin-overproducing S. avermitilis ATCC31780, respectively. These results suggest that the biological significance of the afsR2-dependent PNP and GPD gene expressions on antibiotic biosynthetic regulation could be significantly different depending on Streptomyces species.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.277-284
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• 2005

The avermectins are composed of eight compounds, which exhibit structural differences at three positions. A family of four closely-related major components, A1a, A2a, B1a and B2a, has been identified. Of these components, B1a exhibits the most potent antihelminthic activity. The coexistence of the '1' components and '2' components has been accounted for by the defective dehydratase of aveAI module 2, which appears to be responsible for C22-23 dehydration. Therefore, we have attempted to replace the dehydratase of aveAI module 2 with the functional dehydratase from the erythromycin eryAII module 4, via homologous recombination. Erythromycin polyketide synthetase should contain the sole dehydratase domain, thus generating a saturated chain at the C6-7 of erythromycin. We constructed replacement plasmids with PCR products, by using primers which had been derived from the sequences of avermectin aveAI and the erythromycin eryAII biosynthetic gene cluster. If the original dehydratase of Streptomyces avermitilis were exchanged with the corresponding erythromycin gene located on the replacement plasmid, it would be expected to result in the formation of precursors which contain alkene at C22-23, formed by the dehydratase of erythromycin module 4, and further processed by avermectin polyketide synthase. Consequently, the resulting recombinant strain JW3105, which harbors the dehydratase gene derived from erythromycin, was shown to produce only C22,23-unsaturated avermectin compounds. Our research indicates that the desired compound may be produced via polyketide gene replacement.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1563-1567
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• 2007

AfsKav is a eukaryotic-type serine/threonine protein kinase, required for sporulation and avermectin production in Streptomyces avermitilis. In terms of their ability to complement SJW4001 (${\Delta}afsK$-av), afsK-av mutants T165A and T168A were not functional, whereas mutants T165D and T168D retained their ability, indicating that Thr-165 and Thr-168 are the phosphorylation sites required for the role of AfsKav. Expression of the S-adenosylmethione synthetase gene promoted avermectin production in the wild-type S. avermitilis, yet not in the mutant harboring T168D or T165D, demonstrating that tandem phosphorylation on Thr-165 and Thr-168 in AfsKav is the mechanism modulating avermectin production in response to S-adenosylmethione accumulation in S. avermitilis.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.337-341
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• 1990

An investigation was conducted to determine whether the rumen modifiers lasalocid and avoparcin, when included in molasses/urea based supplements, enhanced liveweight performance, in early weaned calves. As part of the study the broad-spectrum parasiticle Avermectin B1 was given to the calves to assess any undesirable side effects on animals of less than four months of age. There were no significant (p>0.05) liveweight responses to supplementation when the rumen modifiers lasalocid and avoparcin were included in supplement rations. Lasalocid reduced supplement intake, however, it had no adverse effect on liveweight gain. Avoparcin substantially improved growth when cottonseed meal was included in the ration. Weaners treated with Avermectin B1 tended to show a greater liveweight gain than untreated weaners during the experiment (p<0.10) and no adverse side effects were noted.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.195-198
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• 2000

Production of eight avermectin components was improved in Streptomyces avermitilis wild type strain (ATCC31267) and high producing mutant strain (ATCC31780) when transformed with a foreign regulatory gene, afsR2 of Streptomyces lividans. Wild type and the high producing strain of S. avermitilis transformed with multiple copies of afsR2 improved total avermectin productions by 2.3 fold and 1.5 fold, respectively. In both of wild type and the high producing transformants carrying afsR2, glycerol was proved to be the best carbon source for the stimulation of avermectin production.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.158-163
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• 2001

The effect of phosphate on the production of avermectin B1a was studied. Response surface methodology was applied to optimize the concentration of organic nitrogen sources. The portion of B1b in total avermectins was decreased from 5.8% to 3.0% by the addition of 1.5 g/ι inorganic phosphate to the production medium. Among organic nitrogen sources, soybean meal was the most effective on avermectin biosynthesis. Results showed that B1a productivity was increased by 44.8% in a laboratory scale fermenter cultivation of Streptomyces avermitilis YA99-40 through fed-batch process. A maximal B1a productivity was obtained by repeated 30 and 20 g/ι of glucose feeding at 136 and 206 hour, respectively. The B1a productivity was increased by 86.3% and the proportion of B1a in the total avermectins was improved from 38% to 45% with respect to the control process. These results would be very useful for enhancing productivity of B1a in an up-scaled processes.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.279-286
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• 2009

Streptomyces is well known for their ability to synthesize enormous varieties of antibiotics as secondary metabolites. Among them, S. avermitilis produces avermectins, a group of antiparasitic agents used in human and veterinary medicine. However, S. avermitilis also produces oligomycin, which is a potential toxic inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation in mammalian cells. Therefore, we decided to disrupt oligomycin synthetase gene to prevent co-production of oligomycin in S. avermitilis. To create plasmid for disruption, the smallest gene of oligomycin synthetase gene cluster was obtained by PCR from S. avermitilis chromosome. Then, apramycin resistance gene was inserted in oligomycin synthetase gene for selection. After transformation of this plasmid, oligomycin synthetase gene (olmA5) in the chromosome was displaced with disruption cassette on the plasmid via homologous recombination. As a result of this gene replacement, we obtained mutants (olmA5::apra) that no longer makes the toxic oligomycin. And the mutants confirmed by PCR and HPLC analysis. However, showed no increasement of avermectin production in the mutant was observed.