Cloning and heterologous expression of the spectinabilin biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces spectabilis

Spectinabilin is a rare nitrophenyl-substituted polyketide metabolite. Here we report the cloning and heterologous expression of the spectinabilin gene cluster from Streptomyces spectabilis. Unexpectedly, this gene cluster is evolutionarily closer to the aureothin gene cluster than to the spectinabilin gene cluster from Streptomyces orinoci. Moreover, the two nearly identical spectinabilin gene clusters use a distinctly different regulation mechanism.