Carbon Flux Distribution in Antibiotic-Producing Chemostat Cultures of Streptomyces lividans

Abstract The carbon metabolism of derivatives of Streptomyces lividans growing under phosphate limitation in chemostat cultures and producing the antibiotics actinorhodin and undecylprodigiosin was investigated. By applying metabolic flux analysis to a stoichiometric model, the relationship between antibiotic production, biomass accumulation, and carbon flux through the major carbon metabolic pathways (the Embden Meyerhoff Parnas and pentose–phosphate pathways) was analyzed. Distribution of carbon flux through the catabolic pathways was shown to be dependent on growth rate, as well as on the carbon and energy source (glucose or gluconate) used. Increasing growth rates promoted an increase in the flux of carbon through glycolysis and the pentose–phosphate pathway. The synthesis of both actinorhodin and undecylprodigiosin was found to be inversely related to flux through the pentose–phosphate pathway.