3. Usability of Pantoea genetic engineering
Pantoea agglomerans strain Eh318 produces through antibiosis a complex zone of inhibited growth in an overlay seeded with Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight. This zone is caused by two antibiotics, named pantocin A and B. The two cosmids conferred different antibiotic activities on E. coli DH5α and had distinct restriction enzyme profiles. A smaller, antibiotic-conferring DNA segment from each cosmid was cloned. Each subclone was characterized and mutagenized with transposons to generate clones that were deficient in conferring pantocin A and B production, respectively. The two pantocins mainly affect other enteric bacteria, based on limited testing.