Toplak M, Teufel R. Three Rings to Rule Them All: How Versatile Flavoenzymes Orchestrate the Structural Diversification of Natural Products.
Biochemistry 2021;
61:47-56. [PMID:
34962769 PMCID:
PMC8772269 DOI:
10.1021/acs.biochem.1c00763]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
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The structural diversification
of natural products is instrumental
to their versatile bioactivities. In this context, redox tailoring
enzymes are commonly involved in the modification and functionalization
of advanced pathway intermediates en route to the mature natural products.
In recent years, flavoprotein monooxygenases have been shown to mediate
numerous redox tailoring reactions that include not only (aromatic)
hydroxylation, Baeyer–Villiger oxidation, or epoxidation reactions
but also oxygenations that are coupled to extensive remodeling of
the carbon backbone, which are often central to the installment of
the respective pharmacophores. In this Perspective, we will highlight
recent developments and discoveries in the field of flavoenzyme catalysis
in bacterial natural product biosynthesis and illustrate how the flavin
cofactor can be fine-tuned to enable chemo-, regio-, and stereospecific
oxygenations via distinct flavin-C4a-peroxide and flavin-N5-(per)oxide
species. Open questions remain, e.g., regarding the breadth of chemical
reactions enabled particularly by the newly discovered flavin-N5-oxygen
adducts and the role of the protein environment in steering such cascade-like
reactions. Outstanding cases involving different flavin oxygenating
species will be exemplified by the tailoring of bacterial aromatic
polyketides, including enterocin, rubromycins, rishirilides, mithramycin,
anthracyclins, chartreusin, jadomycin, and xantholipin. In addition,
the biosynthesis of tropone natural products, including tropolone
and tropodithietic acid, will be presented, which features a recently
described prototypical flavoprotein dioxygenase that may combine flavin-N5-peroxide
and flavin-N5-oxide chemistry. Finally, structural and mechanistic
features of selected enzymes will be discussed as well as hurdles
for their application in the formation of natural product derivatives
via bioengineering.
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