Cloning and preliminary characterization of lh3 gene encoding a putative acetyltransferase from a rifamycin SV-producing strain Amycolatopsis mediterranei.

An ORF located immediately downstream of glnR gene was cloned from Amycolatopsis mediterranei U32 and was named lh3. Sequence analysis revealed that lh3 encodes a putative acetyltransferase, which shows high amino acid sequence similarities to the mycothiol synthase (MshD) from other actinomycetes. For functional analysis, mutation in lh3 gene was generated by gene replacement with an apramycin resistance gene through homologous recombination. Compared with the wild type strain, the resulting mutant was more sensitive to H2O2, apramycin and erythromycin by two- to three-fold. These results suggest that the lh3 gene plays an important role in the course of detoxification in A. mediterranei U32.