Contributions of methylenomycin to the genetics of antibiotic production

Abstract

In the early 1970s, shortly after David Hopwood established his Streptomyces coelicolor group at the John Innes Institute in Norwich, UK, Alan Vivian showed that a non-chromosomal genetic element, SCP1 caused production of, and resistance to, a diffusible inhibitory substance. At the same time, in Japan, Haneishi and colleagues had identified an antibiotic produced by Streptomyces violaceoruber SANK 95570 (a close relative of S. coelicolor), as the epoxycyclopentanone antibiotic methylenomycin.