Cloning of oxetanocin A biosynthetic and resistance genes that reside on a plasmid of Bacillus megaterium strain NK84-0128

Bacillus megaterium strain NM84-0218 produces a potent antiviral antibiotic, oxetanocin A, which has an oxetanosyl-N-glycoside linkage to an adenine moiety. However, the oxetanocin A productivity of the original strain was unstable and low. In this study, oxetanocin A productivity and resistance was shown to be lost simultaneously when a 51.5-kb plasmid, pOXT1, was cured during cultivation. The deficiency of oxetanocin A productivity and resistance was restored by re-introduction of the pOXT1 plasmid into the cured strain. By a cloning experiment it was shown that a 6.8-kb Bgl II-D fragment of the pOXT1 plasmid was responsible for oxetanocin A productivity and resistance.