Production and purification of clavulanic acid, cephamycin C and other bioactive metabolites of Streptomyces

Abstract

The project deals with the investigation of the necessary steps to develop biotechnology for the production of bioactive substances obtained from Streptomyces. For clavulanic acid, AC and cephamycin C, CefC the study intends to fully develop complete production process alternatives including: genetic improvement, bioprocess, and bioreactor development, and also downstream processes development (separation, extraction and purification). Analysis, modeling and simulation of the whole system, as well as of each one ofthe steps, will be performed. The Technology to be generated will be made available for commercial exploitation, under license. The results obtained for these molecules will be applied to the other bioactive compounds isolated. For (4) research institutions will be directly and actively involved in this task: IQ/Unesp Araraquara, (Institute of Chemistry, UNESP) with emphasis on genetic improvement and on isolation and characterization of new bioactive compounds; Agrupamento de Biotecnologia, AB, do IPT, São Paulo, (Biotechnology Group, Institute for Technological Research) researchers will participate more actively in the steps involving mutants characterization, scale-up of the bioreactors in the fermentation process and in the evaluation of anti-tumor ability of the extracts from Streptomyces cultivation. FEA/Unicamp, Campinas, (Faculty of Food Engineering, Unicamp) researchers will participate in the steps concerning operations of separation and purification, with emphasis on utilization of zeolites, as molecular sieve, and nanofiltration; and DEQ/UFSCar, São Carlos, (Department of Chemical Engineering, UFSCar) members, including the project coordinator, will concentrate activities on conventional and non-conventional bioprocess and bioreactor development, such as airlift bioreactor development for AC and CefC production in batch, fed-batch and continuous, with and without cell recycle, processes. Also, with the same emphasis, separation, purification and characterization of biomolecules will be studied. Besides, the Department of Chemistry, UFSCar, ( Departamento de Química da UFSCar), will participate, initially making available equipments for Instrumental Analysis to identify beta-lactam compounds. The main equipments are, Nuclear Magnetic Ressonance, NMR, from the laboratory of Prof. Antonio Gilberto Ferreira and Mass Spectrometry, MS, coupled with HPLC, from the laboratory of Prof. Edson Rodrigues Filho; later, works in collaboration will be accomplished to identify and characterize new bioactive molecules isolated from streptomycetes. In this phase, the Institute of Chemistry, Unesp (IQ Unesp) will also provide expertise in instrumental analysis, offering services for analysis and characterization of bioactive molecules. Mention should be made that, besides the wild strain, Streptomyces clavuligerus ATCC 27064, additional for (4) Streptomyces strains, isolated from marine sediments, one of them considered a new species, are available, at our laboratory, to search for new bioactive compounds. Furthermore, both, Prof. José C. Menezes, from ISTL - Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa - expert in Control of Bioprocess, with major experience in AC industrial production process by S. clavuligerus; and Prof.a. Paloma Liras from Faculty of Biology, University of León, Spain, expert in biosynthesis and molecular genetics of beta-lactam antibiotics, including AC and CefC from S. clavuligerus, already agreed to collaborate with us in the present project, exchanging visits and receiving researchers and students in their laboratory to develop specific studies. (AU)