Reduction-cleavable desferrioxamine B pulldown system enriches Ni(ii)-superoxide dismutase from a Streptomyces proteome

Two resins with the hydroxamic acid siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFOB) immobilised as a free ligand or its Fe(iii) complex were prepared to screen the Streptomyces pilosus proteome for proteins involved in siderophore-mediated Fe(iii) uptake. The resin design included a disulfide bond to enable the release of bound proteins under mild reducing conditions. Proteomics analysis of the bound fractions did not identify proteins associated with siderophore-mediated Fe(iii) uptake, but identified nickel superoxide dismutase (NiSOD), which was enriched on the apo-DFOB-resin but not the Fe(iii)-DFOB-resin or the control resin. While DFOB is unable to sequester Fe(iii) from sites deeply buried in metalloproteins, the coordinatively unsaturated Ni(ii) ion in NiSOD is present in a surface-exposed loop region at the N-terminus, which might enable partial chelation. The results were consistent with the notion that the apo-DFOB-resin formed a ternary complex with NiSOD, which was not possible for either the coordinatively saturated Fe(iii)-DFOB-resin or the non-coordinating control resin systems. In support, ESI-TOF-MS measurements from a solution of a model Ni(ii)-SOD peptide and DFOB showed signals that correlated with a ternary Ni(ii)-SOD peptide-DFOB complex. Although any biological implications of a DFOB-NiSOD complex are unclear, the work shows that the metal coordination properties of siderophores might influence an array of metal-dependent biological processes beyond those established in iron uptake.

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.

Acetyl-CoA-Mediated Post-Biosynthetic Modification of Desferrioxamine B Generates N- and N-O-Acetylated Isomers Controlled by a pH Switch

Biosynthesis of the hydroxamic acid siderophore desferrioxamine D₁ (DFOD₁, 6), which is the N-acetylated analogue of desferrioxamine B (DFOB, 5), has been delineated. Enzyme-independent Ac-CoA-mediated N-acetylation of 5 produced 6, in addition to three constitutional isomers containing an N-O-acetyl group installed at either one of the three hydroxamic acid groups of 5. The formation of N-Ac-DFOB (DFOD₁, 6) and the composite of N-O-acetylated isomers N-O-Ac-DFOB[001] (6a), N-O-Ac-DFOB[010] (6b), and N-O-Ac-DFOB[100] (6c) (defined as the N-O-Ac motif positioned within the terminal amine, internal, or N-acetylated region of 5, respectively), was pH-dependent, with 6a-6c dominant at pH < 8.5 and 6 dominant at pH > 8.5. The trend in the pH dependence was consistent with the pK_a values of the NH₃⁺ (pK_a ∼ 10) and N-OH (pK_a ∼ 8.5-9) groups in 5. The N- and N-O-acetyl motifs can be conceived as a post-biosynthetic modification (PBM) of a nonproteinaceous secondary metabolite, akin to a post-translational modification (PTM) of a protein. The pH-labile N-O-acetyl group could act as a reversible switch to modulate the properties and functions of secondary metabolites, including hydroxamic acid siderophores. An alternative (most likely minor) biosynthetic pathway for 6 showed that the nonribosomal peptide synthetase-independent siderophore synthetase DesD was competent in condensing N'-acetyl-N-succinyl-N-hydroxy-1,5-diaminopentane (N'-Ac-SHDP, 7) with the dimeric hydroxamic acid precursor (AHDP-SHDP, 4) native to 5 biosynthesis to generate 6. The strategy of diversifying protein structure and function using PTMs could be paralleled in secondary metabolites with the use of PBMs.

Precursor-directed biosynthesis of catechol compounds in Acinetobacter bouvetii DSM 14964

Genome mining for VibH homologs reveals several species of Acinetobacter with a gene cluster that putatively encodes the biosynthesis of catechol siderophores with an amine core. A. bouvetii DSM 14964 produces three novel biscatechol siderophores: propanochelin (1), butanochelin (2), and pentanochelin (3). This strain has a relaxed specificity for the amine substrate, allowing for the biosynthesis of a variety of non-natural siderophore analogs by precursor directed biosynthesis. Of potential synthetic utility, A. bouvetii DSM 14964 condenses 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,3-DHB) to allylamine and propargylamine, producing catecholic compounds which bind iron(iii) and may be further modified via thiol-ene or azide-alkyne click chemistry.

Engineering siderophores

Siderophores have important functions for bacteria in iron acquisition and as virulence factors. In this chapter we will discuss the engineering of cyclic hydroxamate siderophores by various biochemical approaches based on the example of Shewanella algae. The marine gamma-proteobacterium S. algae produces three different cyclic hydroxamate siderophores as metabolites via a single biosynthetic gene cluster and one of them is an important key player in interspecies competition blocking swarming of Vibrio alginolyticus. AvbD is the key metabolic enzyme assembling the precursors into three different core structures and hence an interesting target for metabolic and biochemical engineering. Synthetic natural and unnatural precursors can be converted in vitro with purified AvbD to generate siderophores with various ring sizes ranging from analytical to milligram scale. These engineered siderophores can be applied, for example, as swarming inhibitors against V. alginolyticus. Here, we describe the synthesis of the natural and unnatural siderophore precursors HS[X]A and provide our detailed protocols for protein expression of AvbD, conversion of HS[X]A with the enzyme to produce ring-size engineered siderophores and secondly for a biosynthetic feeding strategy that allows to extract engineered siderophores in the milligram scale.

Analogues of desferrioxamine B (DFOB) with new properties and new functions generated using precursor-directed biosynthesis

Desferrioxamine B (DFOB) is a siderophore native to Streptomyces pilosus biosynthesised by the DesABCD enzyme cluster as a high affinity Fe(III) chelator. Although DFOB has a long clinical history for the treatment of chronic iron overload, limitations encourage the development of new analogues. This review describes a recent body of work that has used precursor-directed biosynthesis (PDB) to access new DFOB analogues. PDB exploits the native biosynthetic machinery of a producing organism in culture medium augmented with non-native substrates that compete against native substrates during metabolite assembly. The method allows access to analogues of natural products using benign methods, compared to multistep organic synthesis. The disadvantages of PDB are the production of metabolites in low yield and the need to purify complex mixtures. Streptomyces pilosus medium was supplemented with different types of non-native diamine substrates to compete against native 1,5-diaminopentane to generate DFOB analogues containing alkene bonds, fluorine atoms, ether or thioether functional groups, or a disulfide bond. All analogues retained function as Fe(III) chelators and have properties that could broaden the utility of DFOB. These PDB studies have also added knowledge to the understanding of DFOB biosynthesis.