Directed evolution of aryl carrier proteins in the enterobactin synthetase

Fundamentals of bio-based technologies for selective metal recovery from bio-leachates and liquid waste streams

The number of metal-containing waste streams resulting from electronic end-of life products, metallurgical by-products, and mine tailings to name but a few, is increasing worldwide. In recent decades, the potential to exploit these waste streams as valuable secondary resources to meet the high demand of critical and economically important raw materials has become more prominent. In this review, fundamental principles of bio-based metal recovery technologies are discussed focusing on microbial metabolism-dependent and metabolism-independent mechanisms as sustainable alternatives to conventional chemical metal recovery methods. In contrast to previous reviews which have partially addressed this topic, a special focus will be given on how fundamental principles of bio-based recovery technologies can influence the selectivity and specificity of metal recovery. While conventional methods for metal recovery show benefits in terms of economic affordability, bio-based recovery technologies offer advantages in terms of efficiency and environmentally friendliness. Modifications and adaptations in the processes of biosorption, bioaccumulation and bioelectrochemical systems are highlighted, further emphasizing the application of metal-binding peptides and siderophores to increase selectivity in the recovery of metals. Single metal solutions or mixtures with a low complexity have been the focus of previous studies and reviews, but this does not reflect the nature of complex industrial effluents. Therefore, key challenges that arise when dealing with complex polymetallic solutions are addressed and the focus is set on optimizing bio-based technologies to recover metals efficiently and selectively from bio-leachates or liquid waste streams.

Siderophores: A Case Study in Translational Chemical Biology

Siderophores are metal-binding secondary metabolites that assist in iron homeostasis and have been of interest to the scientific community for the last half century. Foundational siderophore research has enabled several translational applications including siderophore-antibiotic and siderophore-peptide conjugates, identification of new antimicrobial targets, advances in disease imaging, and novel therapeutics. This review aims to connect the basic science research (biosynthesis, cellular uptake, gene regulation, and effects on homeostasis) of well-known siderophores with the successive translational application that results. Intertwined throughout are connections to the career of Christopher T. Walsh, his impact on the field of chemical biology, and the legacy of his trainees who continue to innovate.

Evolution-inspired engineering of nonribosomal peptide synthetases

Many clinically used drugs are derived from or inspired by bacterial natural products that often are produced through nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), megasynthetases that activate and join individual amino acids in an assembly line fashion. In this work, we describe a detailed phylogenetic analysis of several bacterial NRPSs that led to the identification of yet undescribed recombination sites within the thiolation (T) domain that can be used for NRPS engineering. We then developed an evolution-inspired "eXchange Unit between T domains" (XUT) approach, which allows the assembly of NRPS fragments over a broad range of GC contents, protein similarities, and extender unit specificities, as demonstrated for the specific production of a proteasome inhibitor designed and assembled from five different NRPS fragments.

Engineering Siderophore Biosynthesis and Regulation Pathways to Increase Diversity and Availability

Siderophores are small metal chelators synthesized by numerous organisms to access iron. These secondary metabolites are ubiquitously present on Earth, and because their production represents the main strategy to assimilate iron, they play an important role in both positive and negative interactions between organisms. In addition, siderophores are used in biotechnology for diverse applications in medicine, agriculture and the environment. The generation of non-natural siderophore analogs provides a new opportunity to create new-to-nature chelating biomolecules that can offer new properties to expand applications. This review summarizes the main strategies of combinatorial biosynthesis that have been used to generate siderophore analogs. We first provide a brief overview of siderophore biosynthesis, followed by a description of the strategies, namely, precursor-directed biosynthesis, the design of synthetic or heterologous pathways and enzyme engineering, used in siderophore biosynthetic pathways to create diversity. In addition, this review highlights the engineering strategies that have been used to improve the production of siderophores by cells to facilitate their downstream utilization.

Development of a Pantetheine Force Field Library for Molecular Modeling

Pantetheine is ubiquitous in nature in various forms of pantetheine-containing ligands (PCLs), including coenzyme A and phosphopantetheine. Lack of scalable force field libraries for PCLs has hampered the computational studies of biological macromolecules containing PCLs. We describe here the development of the first generation Pantetheine Force Field (PFF) library that is compatible with Amber force fields; parameterized using Gasteiger, AM1-BCC, or RESP charging methods combined with gaff2 and ff14SB parameter sets. In addition, a "plug-and-play" strategy was employed to enable the systematic charging of computationally expensive molecules sharing common substructural motifs. The validation studies performed on the PFF library showed promising performance where molecular dynamics (MD) simulations results were compared with experimental data of three representative systems. The PFF library represents the first force field library capable of modeling systems containing PCLs in silico and will aid in various applications including protein engineering and drug discovery.

Comparative structure, dynamics and evolution of acyl-carrier proteins from Borrelia burgdorferi, Brucella melitensis and Rickettsia prowazekii

Acyl carrier proteins (ACPs) are small helical proteins found in all kingdoms of life, primarily involved in fatty acid and polyketide biosynthesis. In eukaryotes, ACPs are part of the fatty acid synthase (FAS) complex, where they act as flexible tethers for the growing lipid chain, enabling access to the distinct active sites in FAS. In the type II synthesis systems found in bacteria and plastids, these proteins exist as monomers and perform various processes, from being a donor for synthesis of various products such as endotoxins, to supplying acyl chains for lipid A and lipoic acid FAS (quorum sensing), but also as signaling molecules, in bioluminescence and activation of toxins. The essential and diverse nature of their functions makes ACP an attractive target for antimicrobial drug discovery. Here, we report the structure, dynamics and evolution of ACPs from three human pathogens: Borrelia burgdorferi, Brucella melitensis and Rickettsia prowazekii, which could facilitate the discovery of new inhibitors of ACP function in pathogenic bacteria.

Type II non-ribosomal peptide synthetase proteins: structure, mechanism, and protein-protein interactions

Covering: 1990 to 2019 Many medicinally-relevant compounds are derived from non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) products. Type I NRPSs are organized into large modular complexes, while type II NRPS systems contain standalone or minimal domains that often encompass specialized tailoring enzymes that produce bioactive metabolites. Protein-protein interactions and communication between the type II biosynthetic machinery and various downstream pathways are critical for efficient metabolite production. Importantly, the architecture of type II NRPS proteins makes them ideal targets for combinatorial biosynthesis and metabolic engineering. Future investigations exploring the molecular basis or protein-protein recognition in type II NRPS pathways will guide these engineering efforts. In this review, we consolidate the broad range of NRPS systems containing type II proteins and focus on structural investigations, enzymatic mechanisms, and protein-protein interactions important to unraveling pathways that produce unique metabolites, including dehydrogenated prolines, substituted benzoic acids, substituted amino acids, and cyclopropanes.

Directed Evolution Reveals the Functional Sequence Space of an Adenylation Domain Specificity Code

Nonribosomal peptides are important natural products biosynthesized by nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). Adenylation (A) domains of NRPSs are highly specific for the substrate they recognize. This recognition is determined by 10 residues in the substrate-binding pocket, termed the specificity code. This finding led to the proposal that nonribosomal peptides could be altered by specificity code swapping. Unfortunately, this approach has proven, with few exceptions, to be unproductive; changing the specificity code typically results in broadened specificity or poor function. To enhance our understanding of A domain substrate selectivity, we carried out a detailed analysis of the specificity code from the A domain of EntF, an NRPS involved in enterobactin biosynthesis in Escherichia coli. Using directed evolution and a genetic selection, we determined which sites in the code have strict residue requirements and which are tolerant of variation. We showed that the EntF A domain, and other l-Ser-specific A domains, have a functional sequence space for l-Ser recognition, rather than a single code. This functional space is more expansive than the aggregate of all characterized l-Ser-specific A domains: we identified 152 new l-Ser specificity codes. Together, our data provide essential insights into how to overcome the barriers that prevent rational changes to A domain specificity.

Structural, functional and evolutionary perspectives on effective re-engineering of non-ribosomal peptide synthetase assembly lines

Covering: up to May 2018 Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are mega-enzymes that form modular templates to assemble specific peptide products, independent of the ribosome. The autonomous nature of the modules in the template offers prospects for re-engineering NRPS enzymes to generate modified peptide products. Although this has clearly been a primary mechanism of natural product diversification throughout evolution, equivalent strategies have proven challenging to implement in the laboratory. In this review we examine key examples of successful and less-successful re-engineering of NRPS templates to generate novel peptides, with the aim of extracting practical guidelines to inform future efforts. We emphasise the importance of maintaining effective protein-protein interactions in recombinant NRPS templates, and identify strengths and limitations of diverse strategies for achieving different engineering outcomes.

Computer-aided re-engineering of nonribosomal peptide and polyketide biosynthetic assembly lines

Covering: 2014 to 2019Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) and polyketide synthases (PKSs) have been the subject of engineering efforts for multiple decades. Their modular assembly line architecture potentially allows unlocking vast chemical space for biosynthesis. However, attempts thus far are often met with mixed success, due to limited molecular compatibility of the parts used for engineering. Now, new engineering strategies, increases in genomic data, and improved computational tools provide more opportunities for major progress. In this review we highlight some of the challenges and progressive strategies for the re-design of NRPSs & type I PKSs and survey useful computational tools and approaches to attain the ultimate goal of semi-automated and design-based engineering of novel peptide and polyketide products.

A Review of the Microbial Production of Bioactive Natural Products and Biologics

A variety of organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and plants, produce secondary metabolites, also known as natural products. Natural products have been a prolific source and an inspiration for numerous medical agents with widely divergent chemical structures and biological activities, including antimicrobial, immunosuppressive, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities, many of which have been developed as treatments and have potential therapeutic applications for human diseases. Aside from natural products, the recent development of recombinant DNA technology has sparked the development of a wide array of biopharmaceutical products, such as recombinant proteins, offering significant advances in treating a broad spectrum of medical illnesses and conditions. Herein, we will introduce the structures and diverse biological activities of natural products and recombinant proteins that have been exploited as valuable molecules in medicine, agriculture and insect control. In addition, we will explore past and ongoing efforts along with achievements in the development of robust and promising microorganisms as cell factories to produce biologically active molecules. Furthermore, we will review multi-disciplinary and comprehensive engineering approaches directed at improving yields of microbial production of natural products and proteins and generating novel molecules. Throughout this article, we will suggest ways in which microbial-derived biologically active molecular entities and their analogs could continue to inspire the development of new therapeutic agents in academia and industry.

Probing the Acyl Carrier Protein-Enzyme Interactions within Terminal Alkyne Biosynthetic Machinery

The alkyne functionality has attracted much interest due to its diverse chemical and biological applications. We recently elucidated an acyl carrier protein (ACP)-dependent alkyne biosynthetic pathway, however, little is known about ACP interactions with the alkyne biosynthetic enzymes, an acyl-ACP ligase (JamA) and a membrane-bound bi-functional desaturase/acetylenase (JamB). Here, we showed that JamB has a more stringent interaction with ACP than JamA. In addition, site directed mutagenesis of a non-cognate ACP significantly improved its compatibility with JamB, suggesting a possible electrostatic interaction at the ACP-JamB interface. Finally, error-prone PCR and screening of a second non-cognate ACP identified hot spots on the ACP that are important for interacting with JamB and yielded mutants which were better recognized by JamB. Our data thus not only provide insights into the ACP interactions in alkyne biosynthesis, but it also potentially aids in future combinatorial biosynthesis of alkyne-tagged metabolites for chemical and biological applications.

An Engineered Synthetic Pathway for Discovering Nonnatural Nonribosomal Peptides in Escherichia coli

Peptides that are synthesized independently of the ribosome in plants, fungi, and bacteria can have clinically relevant anticancer, antihemochromatosis, and antiviral activities, among many other. Despite their natural origin, discovering new natural products is challenging, and there is a need to expand the chemical diversity that is accessible. In this work, we created a novel, compressed synthetic pathway for the heterologous expression and diversification of nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) based on homologs of siderophore pathways from Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae To enhance the likelihood of successful molecule production, we established a selective pressure via the iron-chelating properties of siderophores. By supplementing cells containing our synthetic pathway with different precursors that are incorporated into the pathway independently of NRP enzymes, we generated over 20 predesigned, novel, and structurally diverse NRPs. This engineering approach, where phylogenetically related genes from different organisms are integrated and supplemented with novel precursors, should enable heterologous expression and molecular diversification of NRPs.IMPORTANCE Nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) constitute a source of bioactive molecules with potential therapeutic applications. However, discovering novel NRPs by rational engineering of biosynthetic pathways remains challenging. Here, we show that a synthetic compressed pathway in which we replaced biosynthetic genes with their ancestral homologs and orthologs enabled successful heterologous NRP expression. Polyamines added exogenously were incorporated into nascent NRPs, and molecular production was pressured by growing the host under conditions that make such NRPs beneficial for survival. This multilayered approach resulted in the assembly of over 20 distinct and novel molecules. We envision this strategy being used to enable the production of NRPs from heterologous pathways.

Manipulating Protein-Protein Interactions in Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase Type II Peptidyl Carrier Proteins

In an effort to elucidate and engineer interactions in type II nonribosomal peptide synthetases, we analyzed biomolecular recognition between the essential peptidyl carrier proteins and adenylation domains using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, molecular dynamics, and mutational studies. Three peptidyl carrier proteins, PigG, PltL, and RedO, in addition to their cognate adenylation domains, PigI, PltF, and RedM, were investigated for their cross-species activity. Of the three peptidyl carrier proteins, only PigG showed substantial cross-pathway activity. Characterization of the novel NMR solution structure of holo-PigG and molecular dynamics simulations of holo-PltL and holo-PigG revealed differences in structures and dynamics of these carrier proteins. NMR titration experiments revealed perturbations of the chemical shifts of the loop 1 residues of these peptidyl carrier proteins upon their interaction with the adenylation domain. These experiments revealed a key region for the protein-protein interaction. Mutational studies supported the role of loop 1 in molecular recognition, as mutations to this region of the peptidyl carrier proteins significantly modulated their activities.

Generating Functional Recombinant NRPS Enzymes in the Laboratory Setting via Peptidyl Carrier Protein Engineering

Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are modular enzymatic assembly lines where substrates and intermediates undergo rounds of transformation catalyzed by adenylation (A), condensation (C), and thioesterase (TE) domains. Central to the NRPS biosynthesis are peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) domains, small, catalytically inactive domains that shuttle substrates and intermediates between the catalytic modules and govern product release from TE domains. There is strong interest in recombination of NRPS systems to generate new chemical entities. However, the intrinsic complexity of these systems has been a major challenge. Here, we employ domain substitution and random mutagenesis to recapitulate NRPS evolution, focusing on PCP domains. Using NRPS model systems that produce two different pigmented molecules, pyoverdine and indigoidine, we found that only evolutionarily specialized recombinant PCP domains could interact effectively with the native TE domain for product release. Overall, we highlight that substituted PCP domains require very minor changes to result in functional NRPSs, and infer that positive selection pressure may improve recombinant NRPS outcomes.

Solution Structure of a Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase Carrier Protein Loaded with Its Substrate Reveals Transient, Well-Defined Contacts

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are microbial enzymes that produce a wealth of important natural products by condensing substrates in an assembly line manner. The proper sequence of substrates is obtained by tethering them to phosphopantetheinyl arms of holo carrier proteins (CPs) via a thioester bond. CPs in holo and substrate-loaded forms visit NRPS catalytic domains in a series of transient interactions. A lack of structural information on substrate-loaded carrier proteins has hindered our understanding of NRPS synthesis. Here, we present the first structure of an NRPS aryl carrier protein loaded with its substrate via a native thioester bond, together with the structure of its holo form. We also present the first quantification of NRPS CP backbone dynamics. Our results indicate that prosthetic moieties in both holo and loaded forms are in contact with the protein core, but they also sample states in which they are disordered and extend in solution. We observe that substrate loading induces a large conformational change in the phosphopantetheinyl arm, thereby modulating surfaces accessible for binding to other domains. Our results are discussed in the context of NRPS domain interactions.

Portability of the thiolation domain in recombinant pyoverdine non-ribosomal peptide synthetases

BACKGROUND

Non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes govern the assembly of amino acids and related monomers into peptide-like natural products. A key goal of the field is to develop methods to effective recombine NRPS domains or modules, and thereby generate modified or entirely novel products. We previously showed that substitution of the condensation (C) and adenylation (A) domains in module 2 of the pyoverdine synthetase PvdD from Pseudomonas aeruginosa led to synthesis of modified pyoverdines in a minority of cases, but that more often the recombinant enzymes were non-functional. One possible explanation was that the majority of introduced C domains were unable to effectively communicate with the thiolation (T) domain immediately upstream, in the first module of PvdD.

RESULTS

To test this we first compared the effectiveness of C-A domain substitution relative to T-C-A domain substitution using three different paired sets of domains. Having previously demonstrated that the PvdD A/T domain interfaces are tolerant of domain substitution, we hypothesised that T-C-A domain substitution would lead to more functional recombinant enzymes, by maintaining native T/C domain interactions. Although we successfully generated two recombinant pyoverdines, having a serine or a N5-formyl-N5-hydroxyornithine residue in place of the terminal threonine of wild type pyoverdine, in neither case did the T-C-A domain substitution strategy lead to substantially higher product yield. To more comprehensively examine the abilities of non-native T domains to communicate effectively with the C domain of PvdD module 2 we then substituted the module 1 T domain with 18 different T domains sourced from other pyoverdine NRPS enzymes. In 15/18 cases the recombinant NRPS was functional, including 6/6 cases where the introduced T domain was located upstream of a C domain in its native context.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data indicate that T domains are generally able to interact effectively with non-native C domains, contrasting with previous findings that they are not generally portable upstream of epimerisation (E) or thioesterase (TE) domains. This offers promise for NRPS recombination efforts, but also raises the possibility that some C domains are unable to efficiently accept non-native peptides at their donor site due to steric constraints or other limitations.

Biosynthesis of novel Pyoverdines by domain substitution in a nonribosomal peptide synthetase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pyoverdine is a fluorescent nonribosomal peptide siderophore made by fluorescent pseudomonads. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) PvdD contains two modules that each incorporate an l-threonine residue at the C-terminal end of pyoverdine. In an attempt to generate modified pyoverdine peptides, we substituted alternative-substrate-specifying adenylation (A) and peptide bond-catalyzing condensation (C) domains into the second module of PvdD. When just the A domain was substituted, the resulting strains produced only wild-type pyoverdine-at high levels if the introduced A domain specified threonine or at trace levels otherwise. The high levels of pyoverdine synthesis observed whenever the introduced A domain specified threonine indicated that these nonnative A domains were able to communicate effectively with the PvdD C domain. Moreover, the unexpected observation that non-threonine-specifying A domains nevertheless incorporated threonine into pyoverdine suggests that the native PvdD C domain exhibited stronger selectivity than these A domains for the incorporated amino acid substrate (i.e., misactivation of a threonine residue by the introduced A domains was more frequent than misincorporation of a nonthreonine residue by the PvdD C domain). In contrast, substitution of both the C and A domains of PvdD generated high yields of rationally modified pyoverdines in two instances, these pyoverdines having either a lysine or a serine residue in place of the terminal threonine. However, C-A domain substitution more commonly yielded a truncated peptide product, likely due to stalling of synthesis on a nonfunctional recombinant NRPS template.

Selective enrichment of environmental DNA libraries for genes encoding nonribosomal peptides and polyketides by phosphopantetheine transferase-dependent complementation of siderophore biosynthesis

The cloning of DNA directly from environmental samples provides a means to functionally access biosynthetic gene clusters present in the genomes of the large fraction of bacteria that remains recalcitrant to growth in the laboratory. Herein, we demonstrate a method by which complementation of phosphopantetheine transferase deletion mutants can be used to restore siderophore biosynthesis and to therefore selectively enrich eDNA libraries for nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) and polyketide synthase (PKS) gene sequences to unprecedented levels. The common use of NRPS/PKS-derived siderophores across bacterial taxa makes this method generalizable and should allow for the facile selective enrichment of NRPS/PKS-containing biosynthetic gene clusters from large environmental DNA libraries using a wide variety of phylogenetically diverse bacterial hosts.

Explorations of catalytic domains in non-ribosomal peptide synthetase enzymology

Many pharmaceuticals on the market today belong to a large class of natural products called nonribosomal peptides (NRPs). Originating from bacteria and fungi, these peptide-based natural products consist not only of the 20 canonical L-amino acids, but also non-proteinogenic amino acids, heterocyclic rings, sugars, and fatty acids, generating tremendous chemical diversity. As a result, these secondary metabolites exhibit a broad array of bioactivity, ranging from antimicrobial to anticancer. The biosynthesis of these complex compounds is carried out by large multimodular megaenzymes called nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). Each module is responsible for incorporation of a monomeric unit into the natural product peptide and is composed of individual domains that perform different catalytic reactions. Biochemical and bioinformatic investigations of these enzymes have uncovered the key principles of NRP synthesis, expanding the pharmaceutical potential of their enzymatic processes. Progress has been made in the manipulation of this biosynthetic machinery to develop new chemoenzymatic approaches for synthesizing novel pharmaceutical agents with increased potency. This review focuses on the recent discoveries and breakthroughs in the structural elucidation, molecular mechanism, and chemical biology underlying the discrete domains within NRPSs.

Structural and functional investigation of the intermolecular interaction between NRPS adenylation and carrier protein domains

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are modular proteins that produce peptide antibiotics and siderophores. These enzymes act as catalytic assembly lines where substrates, covalently bound to integrated carrier domains, are delivered to adjacent catalytic domains. The carrier domains are initially loaded by adenylation domains, which use two distinct conformations to catalyze sequentially the adenylation of the substrate and the thioesterification of the pantetheine cofactor. We have used a mechanism-based inhibitor to determine the crystal structure of an engineered adenylation-carrier domain protein illustrating the intermolecular interaction between the adenylation and carrier domains. This structure enabled directed mutations to improve the interaction between nonnative partner proteins. Comparison with prior NRPS adenylation domain structures provides insights into the assembly line dynamics of these modular enzymes.

The Acinetobacter baumannii entA gene located outside the acinetobactin cluster is critical for siderophore production, iron acquisition and virulence

Acinetobacter baumannii causes severe infections in compromised patients, who present an iron-limited environment that controls bacterial growth. This pathogen has responded to this restriction by expressing high-affinity iron acquisition systems including that mediated by the siderophore acinetobactin. Gene cloning, functional assays and biochemical tests showed that the A. baumannii genome contains a single functional copy of an entA ortholog. This gene, which is essential for the biosynthesis of the acinetobactin precursor 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA), locates outside of the acinetobactin gene cluster, which otherwise harbors all genes needed for acinetobactin biosynthesis, export and transport. In silico analyses and genetic complementation tests showed that entA locates next to an entB ortholog, which codes for a putative protein that contains the isochorismatase lyase domain, which is needed for DHBA biosynthesis from isochorismic acid, but lacks the aryl carrier protein domain, which is needed for tethering activated DHBA and completion of siderophore biosynthesis. Thus, basF, which locates within the acinetobactin gene cluster, is the only fully functional entB ortholog present in ATCC 19606(T). The differences in amino acid length and sequences between these two EntB orthologs and the differences in the genetic context within which the entA and entB genes are found in different A. baumannii isolates indicate that they were acquired from different sources by horizontal transfer. Interestingly, the AYE strain proved to be a natural entA mutant capable of acquiring iron via an uncharacterized siderophore-mediated system, an observation that underlines the ability of different A. baumannii isolates to acquire iron using different systems. Finally, experimental infections using in vivo and ex vivo models demonstrate the role of DHBA and acinetobactin intermediates in the virulence of the ATCC 19606(T) cells, although to a lesser extent when compared to the responses obtained with bacteria producing and using fully matured acinetobactin to acquire iron.

Metabolic engineering for the production of natural products

Natural products and their derivatives play an important role in modern healthcare as frontline treatments for many diseases and as inspiration for chemically synthesized therapeutics. With advances in sequencing and recombinant DNA technology, many of the biosynthetic pathways responsible for the production of these chemically complex yet valuable compounds have been elucidated. With an ever-expanding toolkit of biosynthetic components, metabolic engineering is an increasingly powerful method to improve natural product titers and generate novel compounds. Heterologous production platforms have enabled access to pathways from difficult to culture strains, systems biology and metabolic modeling tools have resulted in increasing predictive and analytic capabilities, advances in expression systems and regulation have enabled the fine-tuning of pathways for increased efficiency, and characterization of individual pathway components has facilitated the construction of hybrid pathways for the production of new compounds. These advances in the many aspects of metabolic engineering not only have yielded fascinating scientific discoveries but also make it an increasingly viable approach for the optimization of natural product biosynthesis.

Biochemical and genetic insights into asukamycin biosynthesis

Asukamycin, a member of the manumycin family metabolites, is an antimicrobial and potential antitumor agent isolated from Streptomyces nodosus subsp. asukaensis. The entire asukamycin biosynthetic gene cluster was cloned, assembled, and expressed heterologously in Streptomyces lividans. Bioinformatic analysis and mutagenesis studies elucidated the biosynthetic pathway at the genetic and biochemical level. Four gene sets, asuA-D, govern the formation and assembly of the asukamycin building blocks: a 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid core component, a cyclohexane ring, two triene polyketide chains, and a 2-amino-3-hydroxycyclopent-2-enone moiety to form the intermediate protoasukamycin. AsuE1 and AsuE2 catalyze the conversion of protoasukamycin to 4-hydroxyprotoasukamycin, which is epoxidized at C5-C6 by AsuE3 to the final product, asukamycin. Branched acyl CoA starter units, derived from Val, Leu, and Ile, can be incorporated by the actions of the polyketide synthase III (KSIII) AsuC3/C4 as well as the cellular fatty acid synthase FabH to produce the asukamycin congeners A2-A7. In addition, the type II thioesterase AsuC15 limits the cellular level of omega-cyclohexyl fatty acids and likely maintains homeostasis of the cellular membrane.

Biochemical evidence for conformational changes in the cross-talk between adenylation and peptidyl-carrier protein domains of nonribosomal peptide synthetases

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases serve as multidomain protein templates for producing a wealth of pharmaceutically important natural products. For the correct assembly of the desired natural product the interactions between the different catalytic centres and the reaction intermediates bound to the peptidyl carrier protein must be precisely controlled at spatial and temporal levels. We have investigated the interplay between the adenylation (A) domain and the peptidyl carrier protein in the gramicidin S synthetase I (EC 5.1.1.11) via partial tryptic digests, native PAGE and gel-filtration analysis, as well as by chemical labeling experiments. Our data imply that the 4'-phosphopantetheine moiety of the peptidyl carrier protein changes its position as a result of a conformational change in the A domain, which is induced by the binding of an amino acyl adenylate mimic. The productive interaction between the two domains at the stage of the amino acyl transfer onto the 4'-phosphopantetheine moiety is accompanied by a highly compact protein conformation of the holo-protein. These results provide the first biochemical evidence for the occurrence of conformational changes in the cross-talk between A and peptidyl carrier protein domains of a multidomain nonribosomal peptide synthetase.

Total (bio)synthesis: strategies of nature and of chemists

The biosynthetic pathways to a number of natural products have been reconstituted in vitro using purified enzymes. Many of these molecules have also been synthesized by organic chemists. Here we compare the strategies used by nature and by chemists to reveal the underlying logic and success of each total synthetic approach for some exemplary molecules with diverse biosynthetic origins.

Structural insights into nonribosomal peptide enzymatic assembly lines

Nonribosomal peptides have a variety of medicinal activities including activity as antibiotics, antitumor drugs, immunosuppressives, and toxins. Their biosynthesis on multimodular assembly lines as a series of covalently tethered thioesters, in turn covalently attached on pantetheinyl arms on carrier protein way stations, reflects similar chemical logic and protein machinery to fatty acid and polyketide biosynthesis. While structural information on excised or isolated catalytic adenylation (A), condensation (C), peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) and thioesterase (TE) domains had been gathered over the past decade, little was known about how the NRPS catalytic and carrier domains interact with each other both within and across elongation or termination modules. This Highlight reviews recent breakthrough achievements in both X-ray and NMR spectroscopic studies that illuminate the architecture of NRPS PCP domains, PCP-containing didomain-fragments and of a full termination module (C-A-PCP-TE).

Opportunities for enzyme engineering in natural product biosynthesis

Organisms from all kingdoms of life produce a plethora of natural products that display a range of biological activities. One key limitation of developing these natural products into pharmaceuticals is the inability to perform effective, fast, and inexpensive structure-activity relationship studies (SAR). Recently, enzyme engineering strategies have allowed the exploration of metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways to create new 'natural' products that can be used for SAR. The enzymes that enable the biosynthesis of natural products represent a largely untapped resource of potential biocatalysts. A challenge for the field is how to harness the wealth of reaction types used for natural product metabolism to obtain useful biocatalysts for industrial biotransformations.

An eight residue fragment of an acyl carrier protein suffices for post-translational introduction of fluorescent pantetheinyl arms in protein modification in vitro and in vivo

Genetically encoded tags for tracking a given protein continue to be of great interest in a multitude of in vitro and in vivo contexts. Acyl carrier proteins, both free-standing and as embedded 80-100 residue domains, contain a specific serine side chain that undergoes post-translational pantetheinylation from CoASH as donor substrate. We have previously used phage display methods to select a 12 residue fragment that retains recognition for modification by the Escherichia coli phosphopantetheinyltransferase (PPTase) AcpS. In this work, we have used (15)N-HSQC based NMR titration experiments of a 12-residue peptide substrate with AcpS to identify six specifically interacting residues (S3, L4, D5, M6, W9, and L11) without the formation of any notable secondary structure. Synthesis of a corresponding octapeptide containing 5 of the 6 interacting residues generated a minimal fragment capable of efficient post-translational phosphopantetheinylation. Genetic insertion of this eight residue coding sequence into the proteins sonic hedgehog and transferrin receptor enabled good in vitro and in vivo PPTase-mediated modification by a series of fluorescent CoAs, leading to a set of fluorescent proteins with a peptide tag minimally perturbant to protein folds.

Convergent total syntheses of fluvibactin and vibriobactin using molybdenum(VI) oxide-catalyzed dehydrative cyclization as a key step

Efficient total syntheses of fluvibactin and vibriobactin have been achieved via molybdenum(VI) oxide-catalyzed dehydrative cyclization, Sb(OEt)(3)-catalyzed ester-amide transformation, and WSCI and HOAt-promoted dehydrative amide formation.