Beauvericin, a cyclohexadepsipeptide-possessing natural product with synergistic antifungal, insecticidal, and cytotoxic activities. We isolated and characterized the fpBeas gene cluster, devoted to beauvericin biosynthesis, from the filamentous fungus Fusarium proliferatum LF061. Targeted inactivation of the F. proliferatum genomic copy of fpBeas abolished the production of beauvericin. Comparative sequence analysis of the FpBEAS showed 74% similarity with the BbBEAS that synthesizes the cyclic trimeric ester beauvericin in Beauveria bassiana, which assembles N-methyl-dipeptidol monomer intermediates by the programmed iterative use of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase modules. Differences between the organization of the beauvericin loci in F. proliferaturm and B. bassiana revealed the mechanism for high production of beauvericin in F. proliferatum. Our work provides new insights into beauvericin biosynthesis, and may lead to beauvericin overproduction and creation of new analogs via synthetic biology approaches.
Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates （PHAs） are a family of biopolyesters produced by many wild type and engineered bacteria. PHAs have diverse structures accompanied by flexible thermal and mechanical properties. Combined with their in vitro biodegradation, cell and tissue compatibility, PHAs have been studied for medical applications, especially medical implants applications, including heart valve tissue engineering, vascular tissue engineering, bone tissue engineering, cartilage tissue engineering, nerve conduit tissue engineering as well as esophagus tissue engineering. Most studies have been conducted in the authors＇ lab in the past 20＋ years. Recently, mechanism on PHA promoted tissue regeneration was revealed to relate to cell responses to PHA biodegradation products and cell-material interactions mediated by microRNA. Very importantly, PHA implants were found not to cause carcinogenesis during long-term implantation. Thus, PHAs should have a bright future in biomedical areas.
