PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jana K Schniete
AU  - Pablo Cruz-Morales
AU  - Nelly Selem
AU  - Lorena T. Fernández-Martínez
AU  - Iain S Hunter
AU  - Francisco Barona-Gómez
AU  - Paul A Hoskisson
TI  - Expanding gene families helps generate the metabolic robustness required for antibiotic biosynthesis
AID  - 10.1101/119354
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 119354
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/22/119354.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/22/119354.full
AB  - Expanding the genetic repertoire of an organism by gene duplication or horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can aid adaptation. Streptomyces species are prolific producers of bioactive specialised metabolites with adaptive functions in nature and some have found utility in human medicine such as antibiotics. Whilst the biosynthesis of these specialised metabolites is directed by dedicated biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), little attention has been focussed on how these organisms have evolved robustness into their genomes to facilitate the metabolic plasticity required to provide chemical precursors for biosynthesis. Here we show that specific expansions of gene families in central carbon metabolism have evolved and become fixed in Streptomyces bacteria to enable plasticity and robustness that maintain cell functionality whilst costly specialised metabolites are produced. These expanded gene families, in addition to being a metabolic adaptation, make excellent targets for metabolic engineering of industrial specialised metabolite producing bacteria.