Abstract
IN eubacteria, many characteristics1–3 including resistance to antibiotics and other agents are plasmid-determined. In streptomycetes there are indications that plasmid genes are involved in the production of certain antibiotics: kasugamycin and aureothricin by Streptomyces kasugaensis4 oxytetracycline by S. rimosus5 and turimycin by S. hygroscopicus6. An increased proportion of antibiotic non-producing strains is found after treatment of antibiotic producers with agents known to cause plasmid loss in eubacteria; in S. rimosus, crosses provided additional evidence that extrachromosomal genes are involved in antibiotic production. In all three species, the cause of antibiotic non-production, for example whether it involved an interruption of the biosynthetic pathway or a defect in the liberation of antibiotic into the medium, was unknown. We report here that both the production of and resistance to the same antibiotic in S. coelicolor A3(2) are determined by genes borne on the plasmid SCP1.
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KIRBY, R., WRIGHT, L. & HOPWOOD, D. Plasmid-determined antibiotic synthesis and resistance in Streptomyces coelicolor. Nature 254, 265–267 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/254265a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/254265a0
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