Streptomyces clavuligerus

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iStreptomyces clavuligerus

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Actinobacteria
Order:	Actinomycetales
Family:	Streptomycetaceae
Genus:	Streptomyces
Species:	S. clavuligerus

Binomial name

Streptomyces clavuligerus
Higgens & Kastner 1971

Streptomyces clavuligerus is a species of Gram positive bacterium that produces clavulanic acid.

S. clavuligerus ATCC 27064 (NRRL 3585, DSM 738) was first described by Higgens and Kastner (1971), who isolated it from a South American soil sample. Its name refers to the shape of its spore bearing hyphal branches: ‘clavula’ in Latin means ‘little club’ and the suffix ‘-igerus’ means ‘bearing’. Its spores are gray to grayish green (Higgens & Kastner, 1971).

S. clavuligerus produces over 20 secondary metabolites, including many beta-lactam antibiotics such as clavulanic acid, cephamycin C, deacetoxycephalosporin C, penicillin N (an intermediate in cephamycin C pathway) and at least four other clavams (Nabais & Dafonseca, 1995; Tahlan et al., 2004). Non-β-lactam antibiotics include holomycin and an antibiotic complex, MM 19290, related to tunicamycin (Baggaley et al., 1997). Doran et al. (1990) also described a beta-lactamase-inhibitory protein (BLIP).

Another important characteristic of S. clavuligerus is that it is not able to use glucose as a carbon source, because it lacks a glucose transport system (Aharonowitz & Demain, 1978; Garcia-Dominguez et al., 1989).

It also possesses all the enzymes of the urea cycle, which is unusual for a prokaryote, although it is not clear if the urea cycle is functional (Kirk et al., 2000).

[edit] References

Aharonowitz,Y., Demain,A.L., 1978. Carbon catabolite regulation of cephalosporin production in Streptomyces clavuligerus. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 14:159-164.

Baggaley,K.H., Brown,A.G., Schofield,C.J., 1997. Chemistry and biosynthesis of clavulanic acid and other clavams. Natural Product Reports 14:309-333.

Doran,J.L., Leskiw,B.K., Aippersbach,S., Jensen,S.E., 1990. Isolation and Characterization of A Beta-Lactamase-Inhibitory Protein from Streptomyces clavuligerus and Cloning and Analysis of the Corresponding Gene. Journal of Bacteriology 172:4909-4918.

Garcia-Dominguez,M., Martin,J.F., Liras,P., 1989. Characterization of sugar uptake in wild-type Streptomyces clavuligerus, which is impaired in glucose uptake, and in a glucose-utilizing mutant. Journal of Bacteriology 171:6808-6814.

Higgens,C.E., Kastner,R.E., 1971. Streptomyces clavuligerus sp. nov., a beta-lactam antibiotic producer. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 21:326-331.

Kirk,S. 2000. The physiology of clavulanic acid production by Streptomyces clavuligerus.PhD Thesis. University of Surrey, UK.

Nabais,A.M.A., Dafonseca,M.M.R., 1995. The Effect of Solid Medium Composition on Growth and Sporulation of Streptomyces-Clavuligerus - Spore Viability During Storage at +4-Degrees-C. Biotechnology Techniques 9:361-364.

Tahlan,K., Anders,C., Jensen,S.E., 2004. The Paralogous Pairs of Genes Involved in Clavulanic Acid and Clavam Metabolite Biosynthesis Are Differently Regulated in Streptomyces clavuligerus. Journal of Bacteriology 186:6286-6297.