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Cloning and heterologous expression of the violacein biosynthesis gene cluster fromChromobacterium violaceum

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Abstract

The entire biosynthetic pathway for the synthesis of the antibiotic pigment violacein is encoded on a 14.5 kilobase (kb) fragment of theChromobacterium violaceum genome. When cloned intoEscherichia coli, pigment synthesis is strongly expressed, as it is in a wide range of Gram-negative bacteria. Transposon mutagenesis resulted in a number of different phenotypes that correlated with transposon insertion sites in the gene cluster.

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Pemberton, J.M., Vincent, K.M. & Penfold, R.J. Cloning and heterologous expression of the violacein biosynthesis gene cluster fromChromobacterium violaceum . Current Microbiology 22, 355–358 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02092154

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