Structural studies of the spinosyn forosaminyltransferase, SpnP

Enhancement of spinosad production in Saccharopolyspora spinosa by overexpression of the complete 74-kb spinosyn gene cluster

BACKGROUND

Spinosad, a secondary metabolite produced by Saccharopolyspora spinosa, is a polyketide macrolide insecticide with low toxicity and environmental friendliness. Owing to the high level of DNA methylation and unclear regulatory mechanisms, gene engineering to increase spinosad production is challenging. Limited improvements in yield have been observed with heterologous expression or partial overexpression of the 74-kb spinosyn gene cluster (spn), and research on the overexpression of the complete spinosyn gene cluster is lacking.

RESULTS

The plasmid pCM265-spn was constructed using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Transformation-Associated Recombination cloning to enable the overexpression of the complete spn gene cluster in Sa. spinosa. The engineered strain Sa. spinosa-spn achieved a 124% increase in spinosad yield (693 mg/L) compared to the wild type (309 mg/L). The overexpression of the spn gene cluster also delayed spore formation and reduced hyphal compartmentalization by influencing the transcription of related genes (bldD, ssgA, whiA, whiB, and fstZ). Transcriptional analysis revealed significant upregulation of genes in the spn gene cluster, thereby enhancing secondary metabolism. Additionally, optimization of the fermentation medium through response surface methodology further increased spinosad production to 920 mg/L.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is the first to successfully overexpress the complete spn gene cluster in Sa. spinosa, significantly enhancing spinosad production. These findings have significance for further optimization of spinosad biosynthesis.

Developing a robust genome editing tool based on an endogenous type I-B CRISPR-Cas system in Saccharopolyspora spinosa

Saccharopolyspora spinosa is an industrial rare actinomycete capable of producing important environmental-friendly biopesticides, spinosyns. However, exploitation of S. spinosa has been limited due to its genetic inaccessibility and lack of effective genome engineering tools. In this work, we characterized the activity of an endogenous type I-B CRISPR-Cas system as well as its recognized protospacer adjacent motifs (PAMs) based on bioinformatics analysis combined with a plasmid interference assay in S. spinosa. By delivering editing plasmids containing a designed miniCRISPR array (repeat+self-targeting spacer+repeat) and repair templates, we achieved 100% editing efficiency for gene deletion. Using this tool, the genetic barrier composed of the restriction-modification (RM) systems was systematically disarmed. We showed that by disarming one type I RM system (encoded by A8926_1903/1904/1905) and two type II RM systems (encoded by A8926_1725/1726 and A8926_2652/2653) simultaneously, the transformation efficiency of the replicative and integrative plasmids (pSP01 and pSI01) was increased by approximately 3.9-fold and 4.2-fold, respectively. Using the engineered strain with simultaneous knock-out of these three RM genes as the starting strain, we achieved the deletion of 75-kb spinosyns biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) as well as gene insertion at high efficiency. Collectively, we developed a reliable and highly efficient genome editing tool based on the endogenous type I CRISPR-Cas system combined with the disarmament of the RM systems in S. spinosa. This is the first time to establish an endogenous CRISPR-Cas-based genome editing tool in the non-model industrial actinomycetes.

The LysR family transcriptional regulator ORF-L16 regulates spinosad biosynthesis in Saccharopolyspora spinosa

Spinosad, a potent broad-spectrum bioinsecticide produced by Saccharopolyspora spinosa, has significant market potential. Despite its effectiveness, the regulatory mechanisms of spinosad biosynthesis remain unclear. Our investigation identified the crucial role of the LysR family transcriptional regulator ORF-L16, located upstream of spinosad biosynthetic genes, in spinosad biosynthesis. Through reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends (5'-Race), we unveiled that the spinosad biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) contains six transcription units and seven promoters. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) demonstrated that ORF-L16 bound to seven promoters within the spinosad BGC, indicating its involvement in regulating spinosad biosynthesis. Notably, deletion of ORF-L16 led to a drastic reduction in spinosad production from 1818.73 mg/L to 1.69 mg/L, accompanied by decreased transcription levels of spinosad biosynthetic genes, confirming its positive regulatory function. Additionally, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and EMSA confirmed that spinosyn A, the main product of the spinosad BGC, served as an effector of ORF-L16. Specifically, it decreased the binding affinity between ORF-L16 and spinosad BGC promoters, thus exerting negative feedback regulation on spinosad biosynthesis. This research enhances our comprehension of spinosad biosynthesis regulation and lays the groundwork for future investigations on transcriptional regulators in S. spinosa.

Rethinking Biosynthesis of Aclacinomycin A

Aclacinomycin A (ACM-A) is an anthracycline antitumor agent widely used in clinical practice. The current industrial production of ACM-A relies primarily on chemical synthesis and microbial fermentation. However, chemical synthesis involves multiple reactions which give rise to high production costs and environmental pollution. Microbial fermentation is a sustainable strategy, yet the current fermentation yield is too low to satisfy market demand. Hence, strain improvement is highly desirable, and tremendous endeavors have been made to decipher biosynthesis pathways and modify key enzymes. In this review, we comprehensively describe the reported biosynthesis pathways, key enzymes, and, especially, catalytic mechanisms. In addition, we come up with strategies to uncover unknown enzymes and improve the activities of rate-limiting enzymes. Overall, this review aims to provide valuable insights for complete biosynthesis of ACM-A.

Improving spinosad production by tuning expressions of the forosamine methyltransferase and the forosaminyl transferase to reduce undesired less active byproducts in the heterologous host Streptomyces albus J1074

BACKGROUND

Spinosad is a macrolide insecticide with the tetracyclic lactone backbone to which forosamine and tri-O-methylrhamnose are attached. Both the sugar moieties are essential for its insecticidal activity. In biosynthesis of spinosad, the amino group of forosamine is dimethylated by SpnS and then transferred onto the lactone backbone by SpnP. Because the spinosad native producer is difficult to genetically manipulate, we previously changed promoters, ribosome binding sites and start codons of 23 spinosad biosynthetic genes to construct an artificial gene cluster which resulted in a 328-fold yield improvement in the heterologous host Streptomyces albus J1074 compared with the native gene cluster. However, in fermentation of J1074 with the artificial gene cluster, the N-monodesmethyl spinosad with lower insecticidal activity was always produced with the same titer as spinosad.

RESULTS

By tuning expression of SpnS with an inducible promotor, we found that the undesired less active byproduct N-monodesmethyl spinosad was produced when SpnS was expressed at low level. Although N-monodesmethyl spinosad can be almost fully eliminated with high SpnS expression level, the titer of desired product spinosad was only increased by less than 38%. When the forosaminyl transferase SpnP was further overexpressed together with SpnS, the titer of spinosad was improved by 5.3 folds and the content of N-desmethyl derivatives was decreased by ~ 90%.

CONCLUSION

N-monodesmethyl spinosad was produced due to unbalanced expression of spnS and upstream biosynthetic genes in the refactored artificial gene cluster. The accumulated N-desmethyl forosamine was transferred onto the lactone backbone by SpnP. This study suggested that balanced expression of biosynthetic genes should be considered in the refactoring strategy to avoid accumulation of undesired intermediates or analogues which may affect optimal production of desired compounds.

Increasing the heterologous production of spinosad in Streptomyces albus J1074 by regulating biosynthesis of its polyketide skeleton

Spinosyns are natural broad-spectrum biological insecticides with a double glycosylated polyketide structure that are produced by aerobic fermentation of the actinomycete, Saccharopolyspora spinosa. However, their large-scale overproduction is hindered by poorly understood bottlenecks in optimizing the original strain, and poor adaptability of the heterologous strain to the production of spinosyn. In this study, we genetically engineered heterologous spinosyn-producer Streptomyces albus J1074 and optimized the fermentation to improve the production of spinosad (spinosyn A and spinosyn D) based on our previous work. We systematically investigated the result of overexpressing polyketide synthase genes (spnA, B, C, D, E) using a constitutive promoter on the spinosad titer in S. albus J1074. The supply of polyketide synthase precursors was then increased to further improve spinosad production. Finally, increasing or replacing the carbon source of the culture medium resulted in a final spinosad titer of ∼70 mg/L, which is the highest titer of spinosad achieved in heterologous Streptomyces species. This research provides useful strategies for efficient heterologous production of natural products.

Midecamycin Is Inactivated by Several Different Sugar Moieties at Its Inactivation Site

Glycosylation inactivation is one of the important macrolide resistance mechanisms. The accumulated evidences attributed glycosylation inactivation to a glucosylation modification at the inactivation sites of macrolides. Whether other glycosylation modifications lead to macrolides inactivation is unclear. Herein, we demonstrated that varied glycosylation modifications could cause inactivation of midecamycin, a 16-membered macrolide antibiotic used clinically and agriculturally. Specifically, an actinomycetic glycosyltransferase (GT) OleD was selected for its glycodiversification capacity towards midecamycin. OleD was demonstrated to recognize UDP-D-glucose, UDP-D-xylose, UDP-galactose, UDP-rhamnose and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine to yield corresponding midecamycin 2'-O-glycosides, most of which displayed low yields. Protein engineering of OleD was thus performed to improve its conversions towards sugar donors. Q327F was the most favorable variant with seven times the conversion enhancement towards UDP-N-acetylglucosamine. Likewise, Q327A exhibited 30% conversion enhancement towards UDP-D-xylose. Potent biocatalysts for midecamycin glycosylation were thus obtained through protein engineering. Wild OleD, Q327F and Q327A were used as biocatalysts for scale-up preparation of midecamycin 2'-O-glucopyranoside, midecamycin 2'-O-GlcNAc and midecamycin 2'-O-xylopyranoside. In contrast to midecamycin, these midecamycin 2'-O-glycosides displayed no antimicrobial activities. These evidences suggested that besides glucosylation, other glycosylation patterns also could inactivate midecamycin, providing a new inactivation mechanism for midecamycin resistance. Cumulatively, glycosylation inactivation of midecamycin was independent of the type of attached sugar moieties at its inactivation site.

Biochemical characterization of a glycosyltransferase Gtf3 from Mycobacterium smegmatis: a case study of improved protein solubilization

Glycosyltransferases (GTs) are widely present in several organisms. These enzymes specifically transfer sugar moieties to a range of substrates. The processes of bacterial glycosylation of the cell wall and their relations with host-pathogen interactions have been studied extensively, yet the majority of mycobacterial GTs involved in the cell wall synthesis remain poorly characterized. Glycopeptidolipids (GPLs) are major class of glycolipids present on the cell wall of various mycobacterial species. They play an important role in drug resistance and host-pathogen interaction virulence. Gtf3 enzyme performs a key step in the biosynthesis of triglycosylated GPLs. Here, we describe a general procedure to achieve expression, purification, and crystallization of recombinant protein Gtf3 from Mycobacterium smegmatis using an E. coli expression system. We reported also a combined bioinformatics and biochemical methods to predict aggregation propensity and improve protein solubilization of recombinant Gtf3. NVoy, a carbohydrate-based polymer reagent, was added to prevent protein aggregation by binding to hydrophobic protein surfaces of Gtf3. Using intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence quenching experiments, we also demonstrated that Gtf3-NVoy enzyme interacted with TDP and UDP nucleotide ligands. This case report proposes useful tools for the study of other glycosyltransferases which are rather difficult to characterize and crystallize.

New Sipanmycin Analogues Generated by Combinatorial Biosynthesis and Mutasynthesis Approaches Relying on the Substrate Flexibility of Key Enzymes in the Biosynthetic Pathway

The appearance of new infectious diseases, the increase in multidrug-resistant bacteria, and the need for more effective chemotherapeutic agents have oriented the interests of researchers toward the search for metabolites with novel or improved bioactivities. Sipanmycins are disaccharyl glycosylated macrolactams that exert antibiotic and cytotoxic activities. By applying combinatorial biosynthesis and mutasynthesis approaches, we have generated eight new members of the sipanmycin family. The introduction of plasmids harboring genes responsible for the biosynthesis of several deoxysugars into sipanmycin-producing Streptomyces sp. strain CS149 led to the production of six derivatives with altered glycosylation patterns. After structural elucidation of these new metabolites, we conclude that some of these sugars are the result of the combination of the enzymatic machinery encoded by the introduced plasmids and the native enzymes of the d-sipanose biosynthetic pathway of the wild-type CS149 strain. In addition, two analogues of the parental compounds with a modified polyketide backbone were generated by a mutasynthesis approach, feeding cultures of a mutant strain defective in sipanmycin biosynthesis with 3-aminopentanoic acid. The generation of new sipanmycin analogues shown in this work relied on the substrate flexibility of key enzymes involved in sipanmycin biosynthesis, particularly the glycosyltransferase pair SipS9/SipS14 and enzymes SipL3, SipL1, SipL7, and SipL2, which are involved in the incorporation of the polyketide synthase starting unit.IMPORTANCE Combinatorial biosynthesis has proved its usefulness in generating derivatives of already known compounds with novel or improved pharmacological properties. Sipanmycins are a family of glycosylated macrolactams produced by Streptomyces sp. strain CS149, whose antiproliferative activity is dependent on the sugar moieties attached to the aglycone. In this work, we report the generation of several sipanmycin analogues with different deoxysugars, showing the high degree of flexibility exerted by the glycosyltransferase machinery with respect to the recognition of diverse nucleotide-activated sugars. In addition, modifications in the macrolactam ring were introduced by mutasynthesis approaches, indicating that the enzymes involved in incorporating the starter unit have a moderate ability to introduce different types of β-amino acids. In conclusion, we have proved the substrate flexibility of key enzymes involved in sipanmycin biosynthesis, especially the glycosyltransferases, which can be exploited in future experiments.

Enhanced Heterologous Spinosad Production from a 79-kb Synthetic Multioperon Assembly

Refactoring biosynthetic pathways for enhanced secondary metabolite production is a central challenge for synthetic biology. Here we applied advanced DNA assembly methods and a uniform overexpression logic using constitutive promoters to achieve efficient heterologous production of the complex insecticidal macrolide spinosad. We constructed a 79-kb artificial gene cluster in which 23 biosynthetic genes were grouped into 7 operons, each with a strong constitutive promoter. Compared with the original gene cluster, the artificial gene cluster resulted in a 328-fold enhanced spinosad production in Streptomyces albus J1074. To achieve this goal, we applied the ExoCET DNA assembly method to build a plasmid from 13 GC-rich fragments with high efficiency in one step. Together with our previous direct cloning and recombineering tools, we present new synthetic biology options for refactoring large gene clusters for diverse applications.

Cooperative Involvement of Glycosyltransferases in the Transfer of Amino Sugars during the Biosynthesis of the Macrolactam Sipanmycin by Streptomyces sp. Strain CS149

Macrolactams comprise a family of natural compounds with important bioactivities, such as antibiotic, antifungal, and antiproliferative activities. Sipanmycins A and B are two novel members of this family, with two sugar moieties attached to the aglycon. In the related macrolactam vicenistatin, the sugar moiety has been proven to be essential for cytotoxicity. In this work, the gene cluster responsible for the biosynthesis of sipanmycins (sip cluster) in Streptomyces sp. strain CS149 is described and the steps involved in the glycosylation of the final compounds unraveled. Also, the cooperation of two different glycosyltransferases in each glycosylation step is demonstrated. Additionally, the essential role of SipO2 as an auxiliary protein in the incorporation of the second deoxy sugar is addressed. In light of the results obtained by the generation of mutant strains and in silico characterization of the sip cluster, a biosynthetic pathway for sipanmycins and the two deoxy sugars attached is proposed. Finally, the importance of the hydroxyl group at C-10 of the macrolactam ring and the sugar moieties for cytotoxicity and antibiotic activity of sipanmycins is shown.IMPORTANCE The rapid emergence of infectious diseases and multiresistant pathogens has increased the necessity for new bioactive compounds; thus, novel strategies have to be developed to find them. Actinomycetes isolated in symbiosis with insects have attracted attention in recent years as producers of metabolites with important bioactivities. Sipanmycins are glycosylated macrolactams produced by Streptomyces sp. CS149, isolated from leaf-cutting ants, and show potent cytotoxic activity. Here, we characterize the sip cluster and propose a biosynthetic pathway for sipanmycins. As far as we know, it is the first time that the cooperation between two different glycosyltransferases is demonstrated to be strictly necessary for the incorporation of the same sugar. Also, a third protein with homology to P450 monooxygenases, SipO2, is shown to be essential in the second glycosylation step, forming a complex with the glycosyltransferase pair SipS9-SipS14.

Structural basis of protein arginine rhamnosylation by glycosyltransferase EarP

Protein glycosylation regulates many cellular processes. Numerous glycosyltransferases with broad substrate specificities have been structurally characterized. A novel inverting glycosyltransferase, EarP, specifically transfers rhamnose from dTDP-β-L-rhamnose to Arg32 of bacterial translation elongation factor P (EF-P) to activate its function. Here we report a crystallographic study of Neisseria meningitidis EarP. The EarP structure contains two tandem Rossmann-fold domains, which classifies EarP in glycosyltransferase superfamily B. In contrast to other structurally characterized protein glycosyltransferases, EarP binds the entire β-sheet structure of EF-P domain I through numerous interactions that specifically recognize its conserved residues. Thus Arg32 is properly located at the active site, and causes structural change in a conserved dTDP-β-L-rhamnose-binding loop of EarP. Rhamnosylation by EarP should occur via an S_N2 reaction, with Asp20 as the general base. The Arg32 binding and accompanying structural change of EarP may induce a change in the rhamnose-ring conformation suitable for the reaction.

Heterologous Biosynthesis of Spinosad: An Omics-Guided Large Polyketide Synthase Gene Cluster Reconstitution in Streptomyces

With the advent of the genomics era, heterologous gene expression has been used extensively as a means of accessing natural products (NPs) from environmental DNA samples. However, the heterologous production of NPs often has very low efficiency or is unable to produce targeted NPs. Moreover, due to the complicated transcriptional and metabolic regulation of NP biosynthesis in native producers, especially in the cases of genome mining, it is also difficult to rationally and systematically engineer synthetic pathways to improved NPs biosynthetic efficiency. In this study, various strategies ranging from heterologous production of a NP to subsequent application of omics-guided synthetic modules optimization for efficient biosynthesis of NPs with complex structure have been developed. Heterologous production of spinosyn in Streptomyces spp. has been demonstrated as an example of the application of these approaches. Combined with the targeted omics approach, several rate-limiting steps of spinosyn heterologous production in Streptomyces spp. have been revealed. Subsequent engineering work overcame three of selected rate-limiting steps, and the production of spinosad was increased step by step and finally reached 1460 μg/L, which is about 1000-fold higher than the original strain S. albus J1074 (C4I6-M). These results indicated that the omics platform developed in this work was a powerful tool for guiding the rational refactoring of heterologous biosynthetic pathway in Streptomyces host. Additionally, this work lays the foundation for further studies aimed at the more efficient production of spinosyn in a heterologous host. And the strategy developed in this study is expected to become readily adaptable to highly efficient heterologous production of other NPs with complex structure.

Natural [4 + 2]-Cyclases

[4 + 2]-Cycloadditions are increasingly being recognized in the biosynthetic pathways of many structurally complex natural products. A relatively small collection of enzymes from these pathways have been demonstrated to increase rates of cyclization and impose stereochemical constraints on the reactions. While mechanistic investigation of these enzymes is just beginning, recent studies have provided new insights with implications for understanding their biosynthetic roles, mechanisms of catalysis, and evolutionary origin.

Characterisation of the genes involved in the biosynthesis and attachment of the aminodeoxysugar D-forosamine in the auricin gene cluster of Streptomyces aureofaciens CCM3239

We previously identified the aur1 gene cluster which produces the angucycline antibiotic auricin. Preliminary characterisation of auricin revealed that it is modified by a single aminodeoxysugar, D-forosamine. Here we characterise the D-forosamine-specific genes. The four close tandem genes, aur1TQSV, encoding enzymes involved in the initial steps of the deoxysugar biosynthesis, were located on a large operon with other core auricin biosynthetic genes. Deleting these genes resulted in the absence of auricin and the production of deglycosylated auricin intermediates. The two final D-forosamine biosynthetic genes, sa59, an NDP-hexose aminotransferase, and sa52, an NDP-aminohexose N-dimethyltransferase, are located in a region rather distant from the core auricin genes. A deletion analysis of these genes confirmed their role in D-forosamine biosynthesis. The Δsa59 mutant had a phenotype similar to that of the cluster deletion mutant, while the Δsa52 mutant produced an auricin with a demethylated D-forosamine. Although auricin contains a single deoxyhexose, two glycosyltransferase genes were found to participate in the attachment of D-forosamine to the auricin aglycon. An analysis of the expression of the D-forosamine biosynthesis genes revealed that the initial D-forosamine biosynthetic genes aur1TQSV are regulated together with the other auricin core genes by the aur1Ap promoter under the control of the auricin-specific activator Aur1P. The expression of the other D-forosamine genes, however, is governed by promoters differentially dependent upon the two SARP family auricin-specific activators Aur1PR3 and Aur1PR4. These promoters contain direct repeats similar to the SARP consensus sequence and are involved in the interaction with both regulators.

Computational study of a model system of enzyme-mediated [4+2] cycloaddition reaction

A possible mechanistic pathway related to an enzyme-catalyzed [4+2] cycloaddition reac-tion was studied by theoretical calculations at density functional (B3LYP, O3LYP, M062X) and semiempirical levels (PM6-DH2, PM6) performed on a model system. The calculations were carried out for the key [4+2] cycloaddition step considering enzyme-catalyzed biosynthesis of Spinosyn A in a model reaction, where a reliable example of a biological Diels-Alder reaction was reported experimentally. In the present study it was demonstrated that the [4+2] cycloaddition reaction may benefit from moving along the energetically balanced reaction coordinate, which enabled the catalytic rate enhancement of the [4+2] cycloaddition pathway involving a single transition state. Modeling of such a system with coordination of three amino acids indicated a reliable decrease of activation energy by ~18.0 kcal/mol as compared to a non-catalytic transformation.

Glycosyltransferases: mechanisms and applications in natural product development

Glycosylation reactions mainly catalyzed by glycosyltransferases (Gts) occur almost everywhere in the biosphere, and always play crucial roles in vital processes.

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of spinosyn A

Following the biosynthesis of polyketide backbones by polyketide synthases (PKSs), post-PKS modifications result in a significantly elevated level of structural complexity that renders the chemical synthesis of these natural products challenging. We report herein a total synthesis of the widely used polyketide insecticide spinosyn A by exploiting the prowess of both chemical and enzymatic methods. As more polyketide biosynthetic pathways are characterized, this chemoenzymatic approach is expected to become readily adaptable to streamlining the synthesis of other complex polyketides with more elaborate post-PKS modifications.