Molecular genetics and applications of a Streptomyces gene amplification system

链霉菌是一组普遍存在的土壤细菌，在生态学中发挥重要作用，并产生数百种重要的生物活性化合物。它们能够在陆地生态系统中合成或降解各种化合物。它们是抗生素（超过所有抗生素的2/3）以及其他代谢物的最丰富的已知来源，其具有除草剂、抗癌药物、免疫调节剂和抗寄生虫化合物的应用。基因组测序最近表明，每个分离物都能够产生20-40种不同的潜在生物活性化合物。 不幸的是，这些细菌在实验室中产生的这些化合物不到10%。 随着多重耐药细菌的迅速出现，人们对挖掘这些途径以获得新的抗生素来治疗由细菌病原体如葡萄球菌、链球菌、分枝杆菌和沙门氏菌引起的疾病重新产生了兴趣。

Streptomyces are a ubiquitous group of soil bacteria that play important roles in ecology and produce hundreds of important bioactive compounds. They are able to synthesize or degrade diverse compounds in terrestrial ecosystems. They are the most prolific known source of antibiotics (more than 2/3 of all antibiotics) as well as other metabolites having applications as herbicides, anticancer drugs, immunoregulators, and antiparasitic compounds. Genome sequencing has recently shown that each isolate is able to produce its own repertoire of 20-40 different, potentially bioactive compounds. Unfortunately, these bacteria produces less than 10% of these compounds in the laboratory. With multidrug resistant bacteria rapidly emerging, there is renewed interest in mining these pathways for new antibiotics to treat diseases caused by bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Mycobacterium, and Salmonella.