Cyclodipeptide (CDP) composed of two amino acids is the simplest cyclic peptide. These two amino acids form a typical diketopiperazine (DKP) ring by linking each other with peptide bonds. This characteristic stable ring skeleton is the foundation of CDP to display extensive and excellent bioactivities, which is beneficial for CDPs' pharmaceutical research and development. The natural CDP products are well isolated from actinomycetes. These bacteria can synthesize DKP backbones with nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) or cyclodipeptide synthase (CDPS). Moreover, actinomycetes could produce a variety of CDPs through different enzymatic modification. The presence of these abundant and diversified catalysis indicates that actinomycetes are promising microbial resource for exploring CDPs. This review summarized the pathways for DKP backbones biosynthesis and their post-modification mechanism in actinomycetes. The aim of this review was to accelerate the genome mining of CDPs and their isolation, purification and structure identification, and to facilitate revealing the biosynthesis mechanism of novel CDPs as well as their synthetic biology design.
Actinobacteria/metabolism* ; Actinomyces/metabolism* ; Biological Products/metabolism* ; Bacteria/metabolism* ; Diketopiperazines/metabolism* ; Amino Acids

Ribosomal engineering is a technique that can improve the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in the antibiotics-resistant mutants by attacking the bacterial RNA polymerase or ribosome units using the corresponding antibiotics. Ribosomal engineering can be used to discover and increase the production of valuable bioactive secondary metabolites from almost all actinomycetes strains regardless of their genetic accessibility. As a consequence, ribosomal engineering has been widely applied to genome mining and production optimization of secondary metabolites in actinomycetes. To date, more than a dozen of new molecules were discovered and production of approximately 30 secondary metabolites were enhanced using actinomycetes mutant strains generated by ribosomal engineering. This review summarized the mechanism, development, and protocol of ribosomal engineering, highlighting the application of ribosomal engineering in actinomycetes, with the aim to facilitate future development of ribosomal engineering and discovery of actinomycetes secondary metabolites.
Actinobacteria/metabolism* ; Actinomyces/genetics* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/metabolism* ; Multigene Family ; Ribosomes/genetics*

Pyruvate phosphate dikinase (PPDK; EC 2.7.9.1) is found in certain microorganisms and plants, and catalyzes the conversion of AMP, PPi and phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to ATP, Pi and pyruvate. Using the genomic DNA of Microbispora rosea subsp. aerata as the template, a DNA fragment encoding the gene PPDK was amplified by PCR and inserted into the expression vector pET28a(+), yielding pET28a (+)-PPDK. The E. coli BL21 (DE3) was transformed with the pET28a (+)-PPDK. After inducing with IPTG, the E. coli BL21 (DE3) [pET28a (+)-PPDK] expressed recombinant PPDK fused to an N-terminal sequence of 6-His Tag. The molecular weight of PPDK was estimated to be 101 kD by SDS-PAGE. The PPDK was purified by His * Bind Resin affinity chromatography and ultrafiltration using 10 kD cut-off membrane. The successful application of PPDK in pyrosequencing was also demonstrated.
Actinomyces ; enzymology ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Pyruvate, Orthophosphate Dikinase ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Recombination, Genetic ; Sequence Analysis

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of compounds of Galla chinensis extract (GCE) and Nidus vespae extract-1 (WVE1) on oral bacteria biofilm structure and activity and to determine the possibility of caries prevention by the compounds.

METHODSThe morphology and activity of treated-oral bacterial biofilm and untreated-oral bacterial biofilm were observed by using fluorescence microscope in combination of idio-fluorochrome to label the died and living bacteria. The visible light semiquantitative method was used to measure biomass glucosyltransferase (GTF, A620) values and to determine the effects of active compounds of GCE and NVE1 on GTF of oral bacteria biofilm.

RESULTSThe living bacteria in the untreated 24 h bacterial biofilm was dominant, and only a small number of died bacteria were found, the biofilm structure was regular and clear. GCE, GCE-B and NVE1 could inhibit the bacteria in the dental biofilm, which showed significant difference with the negative control. GCE and NVE1 could also inhibit GTF activity of 24 h bacterial biofilm in comparison with the negative control.

CONCLUSIONSThe traditional Chinese medicine Galla chinensis and Nidus vespae could not only inhibit bacteria growth on oral bacterial biofilm, but also function by adjusting biofilm structure, composition and GTF activity of 24 h bacterial biofilm.

Actinomyces viscosus ; drug effects ; enzymology ; physiology ; Bacteriological Techniques ; Biofilms ; drug effects ; Dental Caries ; microbiology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Glucosyltransferases ; metabolism ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Streptococcus mutans ; drug effects ; enzymology ; physiology ; Streptococcus sanguis ; drug effects ; enzymology ; physiology

Human oral bacteria live in multispecies communities in the biofilm called dental plaque. This review focuses on the interactions of seven species and the ability of each species individually and together with other species to grow on saliva as the sole source of nutrient. Community formation in biofilms in flow cells is monitored using species-specific fluorophore-conjugated immunoglobulin G, and images are captured by confocal microscopy. Early colonizing veillonellae emerge from this review of interspecies interactions in saliva as a critical genus that guides the development of multispecies communities. Highly selective interspecies recognition is evident as initial colonizers pair with early and middle colonizers to form multispecies communities that grow on saliva.
Actinomyces ; growth & development ; Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans ; growth & development ; Animals ; Biofilms ; growth & development ; Dental Enamel ; microbiology ; Dental Plaque ; metabolism ; microbiology ; Fluorescent Dyes ; metabolism ; Fusobacterium nucleatum ; growth & development ; Humans ; Microbial Consortia ; physiology ; Microbial Interactions ; physiology ; Microscopy, Confocal ; Polysaccharides, Bacterial ; chemistry ; Saliva ; metabolism ; microbiology ; Streptococcus oralis ; growth & development ; Veillonella ; growth & development