Isolation and structure of a new butyrolactone autoregulator from Streptomyces sp. FRI-5

A hormone-like factor, which triggers blue pigment production in Streptomyces sp. FRI-5, was purified 170,000-fold from a culture broth of the strain with 14% activity recovery. The compound, named IM-2, was effective at a concentration of 0.6 ng/ml in initiating blue pigment-production. The structure was determined to be 2, 3-trans-2-(1′-hydroxybutyl)-3-(hydroxymethyl)butanolide (10) on the basis of spectral data and chemical synthesis.