Activity screening of carrier domains within nonribosomal peptide synthetases using complex substrate mixtures and large molecule mass spectrometry

For screening a pool of potential substrates that load carrier domains found in nonribosomal peptide synthetases, large molecule mass spectrometry is shown to be a new, unbiased assay. Combining the high resolving power of Fourier transform mass spectrometry with the ability of adenylation domains to select their own substrates, the mass change that takes place upon formation of a covalent intermediate thus identifies the substrate. This assay has an advantage over traditional radiochemical assays in that many substrates, the substrate pool, can be screened simultaneously. Using proteins on the nikkomycin, clorobiocin, coumermycin A1, yersiniabactin, pyochelin, and enterobactin biosynthetic pathways as proof of principle, preferred substrates are readily identified from substrate pools. Furthermore, this assay can be used to provide insight into the timing of tailoring events of biosynthetic pathways as demonstrated using the bromination reaction found on the jamaicamide biosynthetic pathway. Finally, this assay can provide insight into the role and function of orphan gene clusters for which the encoded natural product is unknown. This is demonstrated by identifying the substrates for two NRPS modules from the pksN and pksJ genes that are found on an orphan NRPS/PKS hybrid cluster from Bacillus subtilis. This new assay format is especially timely for activity screening in an era when new types of thiotemplate assembly lines that defy classification are being discovered at an accelerating rate.

Dichlorination of a pyrrolyl-S-carrier protein by FADH2-dependent halogenase PltA during pyoluteorin biosynthesis

The antifungal natural product pyoluteorin contains a 4,5-dichloropyrrole moiety. The timing of dichlorination in the heteroaromatic ring is now shown to occur after proline is tethered by thioester linkage to the carrier protein PltL and enzymatically desaturated to the pyrrolyl-S-PltL. Surprisingly, the FADH2-dependent halogenase PltA catalyzes chlorination at both positions of the ring, generating the 5-chloropyrrolyl-S-PltL intermediate and then the 4,5-dichloropyrrolyl-S-PltL product. PltA activity strictly depends on a heterologous flavin reductase that uses NAD(P)H to produce FADH2. Electrospray ionization-Fourier transform MS detected five covalent intermediates attached to the 11-kDa carrier protein PltL. Tandem MS localized the site of covalent modification on the carrier protein scaffold. HPLC analysis of the hydrolyzed products was consistent with the regiospecific chlorination at position 5 and then position 4 of the heteroaromatic ring. A mechanism for dichlorination is proposed involving formation of a FAD-4a-OCl intermediate for capture by the electron-rich C4 and C5 of the heteroaromatic pyrrole moiety.