Biotransformation of progesterone to valuable steroids by isolated strain of Streptomyces

Abstract

Introduction and purpose The possibility of using of novel marine actinomycetes as a source of production of some industrially important hydroxyl steroid derivatives in one-step biotransformation process of progesterone was investigated in this study. Materials and methods Genomic DNA of the actinomycetes isolate was extracted using GeneJET Genomic DNA purification kit. The actinomycetes isolate was identified by 16S rDNA. The molecular sizes of amplified regions were confirmed using agarose gel electrophoresis. The identified Streptomyces strain was inoculated into the transformation medium, which was supplemented with progesterone as a substrate (5 mg/50 ml medium). The transformation products were separated and characterized on the basis of their infrared/nuclear magnetic resonance/mass spectrometry analysis as pregnenolone (1), 3β-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-17-one (2), and testosterone (3). Results and conclusion Because of the excellent track record of actinomycetes in this regard, new actinomycetes strain isolated from marine sources was used in this investigation. The isolated strain was identified by 16S rDNA. The 16S rDNA region was amplified using PCR (about 500 bp) using universal primers. According to sequencing similarities and multiple alignments, the isolate was found to be closely related to Streptomyces tunisiensis strain CN-207 with 98% identity. The infrared spectrum, 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance, and mass spectral database was used in the identification of the three isolated compounds 1, 2, and 3. The isolated steroid molecules from the total extract (0.3 g) are pregnenolone (1), 3β-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-17-one (2), and testosterone (3).