The present invention relates to processes for increasing the production of clavulanic acid and other clavams including those with strong β-lactamase inhibitory activity from producing organisms. The present invention also provides novel organisms capable of producing increased amounts of these clavams.

Microorganisms, in particular Streptomyces sp. produce a number of antibiotics including clavulanic acid and other clavams, cephalosporins, cephamycins, tunicamycin, holomycin and penicillins. There is considerable interest in being able to manipulate the absolute and relative amounts of these antibiotics produced and accordingly there have been a large number of studies investigating the metabolic and genetic mechanisms of these pathways [Domain, A.L. (1990) "Biosynthesis and regulation of beta-lactam antibiotics. " In : 50 years of Penicillin applications, history and trends]. Many of the enzymes which carry out the various steps in the metabolic pathways and the genes which code for these enzymes are known.

In the cephalosporin metabolic pathway in, for example , Streptomyces clavuligerus three important antibiotics can be produced namely penicillin N, O- carbamoyldeacety .cephalosporin C and cephamycin C.

These antibiotics are synthesised from the tripeptide precursor d-(L-a-aminoadipyl)- L-cysteinyl-D-valine (ACV) [J.F. Martin et al (1990)., "Clusters of genes involved in Penicillin and cephalosporin biosynthesis" In : 50 years of penicillin applications history and trends] .

The recognised first dedicated step in the biosynthesis of both penicillins and cephalosporins in S. clavuligerus involves the enzyme lysine -ε - amino transferase (LAT). The nucleotide sequence and derived amino acid sequence of S. clavuligerus lat gene is known [Tobin, M.B et al. , (1991) J. Bacteriol, 173, 6223- 6229].

US patent 5,474,912 ( published 12 December 1995) describes a process for producing increased amounts of cephalosporins in S. clavuligerus by inserting one or more copies of a LAT gene into the chromosome of the organism. Although effects on β -lactam antibiotics are claimed, only effects on products of the cephalosporin pathway in S. clavuligerus are disclosed ie. no effects on clavam production were measured or described.

Clavulanic acid and other clavams are derived from a 3 carbon compound [Townsend ,C.A. and Ho, M.F. (1985) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107 (4), 1066-1068 and Elson, S. W and Oliver, R.S. (1978) J. Antiobiotics XXXI No.6, 568] and arginine [ Valentine , B.P et al (1993) J. Am Chem. Soc. 15, 1210-1211] .

The gene clusters which determine the biosynthesis of cephalosporins and clavulanic acid, although adjacent to each other on the S. clavuligerus chromosome [Ward, J.M. and Hodgson, J.E (1993) FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 110, 239-242] do not share common biosynthetic structural genes. Therefore there are no apparent biochemical links between the pathways.

Surprisingly we have found that when at least one step in the cephalosporin pathway of an organism is interfered with the amount of clavams produced by the organism is increased.

Accordingly the present invention provides a process for increasing the amount of clavam produced by an organism having both a clavam pathway or a portion thereof and a cephalosporin pathway or a portion thereof by interfering with the conversion of L-lysine to L-α-aminoadipic acid in the cephalosporin pathway .

Preferably the clavam has β-lactamase inhibitory activity and more preferably the clavam is clavulanic acid.

In a preferred aspect of the invention the process of conversion of L-lysine to L- α- aminoadipic acid is interfered with by altering the function of the LAT enzyme or the lat gene. For example the enzyme can be inhibited or otherwise blocked (for example by using a non-metabolisable substrate or analog).

Suitably the LAT gene can be obtained by conventional cloning methods (such as PCR) based on the published sequence. The function of the gene can be interfered with or eliminated/deleted by genetic techniques such as gene disruption [Aidoo, K.A. et al., (1994), Gene, 147, 41-46]., random mutagenesis, site directed mutagenesis and antisense RNA.

Mahro.B. and Demain, A (1987), Appl. Microbiol. Technol. 27, 272-275 described a spontaneous mutant strain of S. clavuligerus (NP1) which did not produce cephamycin and was demonstrated to be defective in lat, acvs and ipns enzyme activities. H. Yu et al (1994) [Microbiology, 140,3367-3377] demonstrated that the activity of these three enzymes can be recovered by transforming the mutant with a fragment of DNA encoding the entire LAT gene (lat) and the upstream half of the acvs gene (pcbAB). However there was no teaching of any effect in this mutant in relation to the production of clavulanic acid or other clavams.

In a further aspect of the invention there are provided plasmids containing a defective lat gene , preferably the plasmids pCF002 and p4861atap described below. Suitably the plasmids are used to transform an organism such as S. clavuligerus eg strain ATCC 27064 (equivalent to S. clavuligerus NRRL 3585).

In a further aspect of the invention there is provided an organism containing a defective lat gene.

EXAMPLES

In the examples all methods are as in Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F. and Maniatis.T. (1989) Molecular Cloning A Laboratory Manual (2nd Edition) unless otherwise stated.

Example 1 - Assembling the disrupted lat gene

To start the process pA2/119 (Thesis by A. K. Petrich(1993) Transcriptional analysis of the Isopenicillin N synthetase gene of Streptomyces clavuligerus; University of Alberta) was digested with Kpnl to liberate its 0.688 kb insert. The digest was fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis and the 0.688 kb fragment was eluted and Klenow-treated. The blunted fragment was then ligated to Hindi- digested pUC119 and used to transform E. coli MV1193 to ampicillin resistance. A transformant, containing the recombinant plasmid hereinafter named pELK004 was isolated and its identity confirmed by restriction analysis. pELK004 was digested with BamHI and Kpnl and ligated to a BamHI-Kpnl apr ^r - fragment. The ligation mixture was used to transform E. coli MV1193 to apramycin resistance. The resulting transformants were screened and a recombinant plasmid pCFOOlA containing the apr ^r - fragment inserted upstream of , and inversely oriented to the 0.688-kb 3 '-lat fragment was isolated and confirmed by restriction analysis.

In the next step pA2/119 was used as a template in a PCR reaction to subclone the upstream region of the lat gene into pUC119. The DNA primers used were the M13 reverse sequencing primer and a primer with the DNA sequence 5' CATGCGGATCCCGTCGACGAGCATATGC-3' under standard reaction conditions [PCR technology Principles and Applications for DNA amplification, Ed. H A Ehrlich (1989)] and a cycle composition of 92 degrees C for 30 s, 55 degrees C for 30 s and 72 degrees C for 60 s. PCR products were isolated by gel electrophoresis on a 1.25% agarose gel. The amplified DNA fragment was gel purified, digested with restriction endonucleases EcoRl and BamHI , and ligated with similarly digested pUC119. Subsequent E.coli MV1193 transformants were analysed by restriction endonuclease treatment followed by gel electrophoresis and

DNA sequence analysis to ensure that the correct fragment was cloned and that no unintended mutations were introduced during amplification by PCR. The pUC119 construction containing the DNA region upstream of lat was named pL/119.

The next step involved digesting pLl/119 with EcoRl and Kpnl to liberate its 1.08 kb fragment insert. The digest was fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis and the 1.08 kb fragment was eluted and ligated to EcoRl and Kpnl-digested pCFOOlA. The ligation mixture was used to transform MV1193 to apramycin resistance. The resulting transformants were screened and a clone was isolated that contained a recombinant plasmid pCF002 [see Fig 1(a)] which possessed the 1.08 kb 5 '-lat fragment upstream of the 3 '-lat fragment, both in the same orientation, but separated from each other by the inversely oriented apr ^r fragment. The identity of pCF002 was confirmed by restriction analysis; the results indicated that the apr ^r fragment was inserted at the Kpnl site, within the lat gene at 852 bp from the start codon and 521 bp from the stop codon.

Example 2 - Introduction of the disrupted lat gene into 5. clavuligerus

The disrupted lat gene was subcloned by digesting pCF002 with EcoRl and Hindlll (to liberate the DNA fragment carrying the disrupted lat gene) and ligating the digest with similarly digested pIJ486 to create p4861atap [see Fig. 1(b)]. The ligation mixture was used to transform S. lividans protoplasts to apramycin resistance (Genetic Manipulation of Streptomyces. A Laboratory manual (1985) D.A. Hopwood et al.). A clone was selected that contained the recombinant plasmid p4861atap; restriction analysis was then used to confirm the presence of the disrupted lat gene in p4861atap.

p4861atap was used to transform protoplasts of wild type S. clavuligerus (NRRL 3585) to apramycin resistance [Bailey ,C.R and Winstanley.D.J J. Gen. Microbiol. (1986) 132, 2945-2947]. Only one transformant was obtained which grew up well when subcultured on MYM [Paradkar , A.S. and Jensen, S.E. (1994) J. Bact. 177, 1307-1314] supplemented with thiostrepton and apramycin The transformant was

then subcultured to IPS medium #3 agar (unsupplemented) [Paradkar and Jensen, ibid]and allowed to sporulate at 28 degrees C. Spores were harvested and then replated for single colonies on to ISP medium #3 agar and MYM agar, both unsupplemented. These were allowed to sporulate and were then replica-plated successively on to MYM supplemented with thiostrepton, MYM supplemented with apramycin and MYM (unsupplemented). After three days at 28 degrees C colonies were apparent on the apramycin supplemented and unsupplemented plates but no colonies grew on the thiostrepton plates. Four of the apramycin resistant, thiostrepton sensitive colonies (lat#2,lat#5, lat#7 and lat#ll) were selected for further investigation.

Because these isolates were apr ^r , thio ^s it was assumed that a double cross-over event had occurred between p4861atap and the S. clavuligerus chromosome. This assumption was confirmed by Southern hybridisation analysis.

Example 3 - Cephamycin and clavulanic acid production by the lat-disrupted mutant

To determine the effect of the presumed lat disruption mutation on antibiotic production all four strains (disruptants) were grown in starch-asparagine (SA) liquid medium (Paradkar, A.S. and Jensen, S.E (1995) , J. Bacteriol. 177 , 1307- 1314.) for 66 h at 28 degrees C. The supernatants were adjusted to account for different growth rates and then bioassayed against E. coli ESS (Paradkar and Jensen ibid.) and compared to similarly adjusted supernatants from cultures of wild type S. clavuligerus. Everyone of the lat-disruptants produced very small zones of inhibition corresponding to approximately 0.045 ug/ml/cephalosporins; under similar conditions the wild type strain was producing 3.18 ug/ml/cephalosporins.

Samples of the same ^' supernatants were bioassayed for clavulanic acid production against Klebsiella pneumoniae (Bailey, C.R. et al. (1984) Bio/Technology 2(9) 808- 811. All four disruptants appeared to produce two to three times the amount of clavulanic acid as compared to the wild type as judged by the bioassay.

Because all four of the lat disruptants seemed to exhibit similar phenotypes with respect to clavulanic acid production, and all four had been derived from one primary transformant, lat#2 was selected for further investigation. A time course experiment was carried out in which triplicate shake cultures of lat#2 and the wild type S. clavuligerus were grown in SA medium at 28 degrees C and sampled at 48h, 72 h and 99h after inoculation. Bioassay against K. pneumoniae showed that at 48 h , lat#2 was producing approximately four times the amount of clavulanic acid as the wild type . However by 99h the lat#2 cultures were producing a little over twice as much clavulanic acid as the wild type. A concurrent bioassay of the same cultures for the same time periods against E. coli ESS showed that lat#2 produced no detectable antibacterial activity. Wild type cultures produced moderate but easily detectable amounts of cephalosporins (maximum titre 6.5 ug/ml)

Summary

A lat disruption mutant has been created. Experiments have shown that it produces negligible amounts of β-lactam antibiotics except clavulanic acid. Of the latter it produces at least two to three times the amount of clavulanic acid produced by wild type S. clavuligerus grown under shake flask conditions in Starch-Asparagine medium.