Draft genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. MWW064 for elucidating the rakicidin biosynthetic pathway.

Streptomyces sp. MWW064 (=NBRC 110611) produces an antitumor cyclic depsipeptide rakicidin D. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of this strain together with features of the organism and generation, annotation and analysis of the genome sequence. The 7.9 Mb genome of Streptomyces sp. MWW064 encoded 7,135 putative ORFs, of which 6,044 were assigned with COG categories. The genome harbored at least three type I polyketide synthase (PKS) gene clusters, seven nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene clusters, and four hybrid PKS/NRPS gene clusters, from which a hybrid PKS/NRPS gene cluster responsible for rakicidin synthesis was successfully identified. We propose the biosynthetic pathway based on bioinformatic analysis, and experimentally proved that the pentadienoyl unit in rakicidins is derived from serine and malonate.