Uncialamycin (UCM) belongs to the anthraquinone-fused subfamily of 10-membered enediyne natural products that exhibits an extraordinary cytotoxicity against a wide spectrum of human cancer cell lines. Antibody-drug conjugates, utilizing synthetic analogues of UCM as payloads, are in preclinical development. UCM is exclusively produced by Streptomyces uncialis DCA2648 on solid agar medium with low titers (∼0.019 mg/l), limiting its supply by microbial fermentation and hampering its biosynthetic and engineering studies by in vivo pathway manipulation. Here, we report cultivation conditions that enable genetic manipulation of UCM biosynthesis in vivo and allow UCM production, with improved titers, by submerged fermentation of the engineered S. uncialis strains. Specifically, the titer of UCM was improved nearly 58-fold to ∼1.1 mg/l through the combination of deletion of biosynthetic gene clusters encoding unrelated metabolites from the S. uncialis wild-type, chemical mutagenesis and manipulation of pathway-specific regulators to generate the engineered S. uncialis strains, and finally medium optimization of the latter for UCM production. Genetic manipulation of UCM biosynthesis was demonstrated by inactivating selected genes in the engineered S. uncialis strains, one of which afforded a mutant strain accumulating tiancimycin B, a common biosynthetic intermediate known for the anthraquinone-fused subfamily of enediyne natural products. These findings highlight a biotechnology platform for UCM biosynthesis, engineering, and production that should facilitate both its fundamental studies and translational applications.Regarding the phylogenetic relationship of the three primary groups of teleost fishes, Osteoglossomorpha (bonytongues and others), Elopomorpha (eels and relatives), Clupeocephala (the remaining teleost fish), early morphological studies hypothesized the first divergence of Osteoglossomorpha, whereas the recent prevailing view is the first divergence of Elopomorpha. Molecular studies supported all the possible relationships of the three primary groups. This study analyzed genome-scale data from four previous studies 1) 412 genes from 12 species, 2) 772 genes from 15 species, 3) 1,062 genes from 30 species, and 4) 491 UCE loci from 27 species. The effects of the species, loci, and models used on the constructed tree topologies were investigated. In the analyses of the data sets (1)-(3), although the first divergence of Clupeocephala that left the other two groups in a sister relationship was supported by concatenated sequences and gene trees of all the species and genes, the first divergence of Elopomorpha among the three groups was supported using species and/or genes with low divergence of sequence and amino-acid frequencies. This result corresponded to that of the UCE data set (4), whose sequence divergence was low, which supported the first divergence of Elopomorpha with high statistical significance. The increase in accuracy of the phylogenetic construction by using species and genes with low sequence divergence was predicted by a phylogenetic informativeness approach and confirmed by computer simulation. These results supported that Elopomorpha was the first basal group of teleost fish to have diverged, consistent with the prevailing view of recent morphological studies.Lenalidomide-dexamethasone (Rd) is standard treatment for elderly patients with multiple myeloma (MM). In this randomized phase 3 study, we investigated efficacy and feasibility of dose/schedule-adjusted Rd followed by maintenance at 10 mg per day without dexamethasone (Rd-R) vs continuous Rd in elderly, intermediate-fit newly diagnosed patients with MM. Primary end point was event-free survival (EFS), defined as progression/death from any cause, lenalidomide discontinuation, or hematologic grade 4 or nonhematologic grade 3 to 4 adverse event (AE). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Etopophos.html Of 199 evaluable patients, 101 received Rd-R and 98 continuous Rd. Median follow-up was 37 months. EFS was 10.4 vs 6.9 months (hazard ratio [HR], 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51-0.95; P = .02); median progression-free survival, 20.2 vs 18.3 months (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.55-1.10; P = .16); and 3-year overall survival, 74% vs 63% (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.37-1.03; P = .06) with Rd-R vs Rd, respectively. Rate of ≥1 nonhematologic grade ≥3 AE was 33% vs 43% (P = .14) in Rd-R vs Rd groups, with neutropenia (21% vs 18%), infections (10% vs 12%), and skin disorders (7% vs 3%) the most frequent; constitutional and central nervous system AEs mainly related to dexamethasone were more frequent with Rd. Lenalidomide was discontinued for AEs in 24% vs 30% and reduced in 45% vs 62% of patients receiving Rd-R vs Rd, respectively. In intermediate-fit patients, switching to reduced-dose lenalidomide maintenance without dexamethasone after 9 Rd cycles was feasible, with similar outcomes to standard continuous Rd. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT02215980.The cyclic lipopeptide antibiotics structurally related to daptomycin were first reported in the 1950s. Several have common lipopeptide initiation, elongation, and termination mechanisms. Initiation requires the use of a fatty acyl-AMP ligase (FAAL), a free-standing acyl carrier protein (ACP), and a specialized condensation (CIII) domain on the first NRPS elongation module to couple the long chain fatty acid to the first amino acid. Termination is carried out by a dimodular NRPS that contains a terminal thioesterase (Te) domain (CAT-CATTe). Lipopeptide BGCs also encode ABC transporters, apparently for export and resistance. The use of this mechanism of initiation, elongation, and termination, coupled with molecular target-agnostic resistance, has provided a unique basis for robust natural and experimental combinatorial biosynthesis to generate a large variety of structurally related compounds, some with altered or different antibacterial mechanisms of action. The FAAL, ACP, and dimodular NRPS genes were used as molecular beacons to identify phylogenetically related BGCs by BLASTp analysis of finished and draft genome sequences. These and other molecular beacons have identified (i) known, but previously unsequenced lipopeptide BGCs in draft genomes; (ii) a new daptomycin family BGC in a draft genome of Streptomyces sedi; and (iii) novel lipopeptide BGCs in the finished genome of Streptomyces ambofaciens and the draft genome of Streptomyces zhaozhouensis.