To enhance doxorubicin (DXR) production, the structural sugar biosynthesis genes desIII and desIV from Streptomyces venezuelae ATCC 15439 and the glycosyltransferase pair dnrS/dnrQ from Streptomyces peucetius ATCC 27952 were cloned into the expression vector pIBR25, which contains a strong ermE* promoter. The recombinant plasmids pDnrS25 and pDnrQS25 were constructed for overexpression of dnrS and the dnrS/dnrQ pair, whereas pDesSD25 and pDesQS25 were constructed to express desIII/desIV and dnrS/dnrQ-desIII/desIV, respectively. All of these recombinant plasmids were introduced into S. peucetius ATCC 27952. The recombinant strains produced more DXR than the S. peucetius parental strain: a 1.2-fold increase with pDnrS25, a 2.8-fold increase with pDnrQS25, a 2.6-fold increase with pDesSD25, and a 5.6-fold increase with pDesQs25. This study showed that DXR production was significantly enhanced by overexpression of potential biosynthetic sugar genes and glycosyltransferase. (C) 2009, The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. All rights reserved.