Amexanthomycins A–J, pentangular polyphenols produced by Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699∆rifA

Looking Back to Amycolatopsis: History of the Antibiotic Discovery and Future Prospects

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria in recent decades leads us to an urgent need for the development of new antibacterial agents. The species of the genus Amycolatopsis are known as producers of secondary metabolites that are used in medicine and agriculture. The complete genome sequences of the Amycolatopsis demonstrate a wide variety of biosynthetic gene clusters, which highlights the potential ability of actinomycetes of this genus to produce new antibiotics. In this review, we summarize information about antibiotics produced by Amycolatopsis species. This knowledge demonstrates the prospects for further study of this genus as an enormous source of antibiotics.

Flavonoids from Marine-Derived Actinobacteria as Anticancer Drugs

Flavonoids represent a large diverse group of natural products that are used as a traditional medicine against various infectious diseases. They possess many biological activities including antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic activities. Commercially, flavonoids are mainly obtained from plants, however, several challenges are faced during their extraction. Microorganisms have been known as natural sources of a wide range of bioactive compounds including flavonoids. Actinobacteria are the most prolific group of microorganisms for the production of bioactive secondary metabolites, thus facilitating the production of flavonoids. The screening programs for bioactive compounds revealed the potential application of actinobacteria to produce flavonoids with interesting biological activities, especially anticancer activities. Since marine actinobacteria are recognized as a potential source of novel anticancer agents, they are highly expected to be potential producers of anticancer flavonoids with unusual structures and properties. In this review, we highlight the production of flavonoids by actinobacteria through classical fermentation, engineering of plant biosynthetic genes in a recombinant actinobacterium and the de novo biosynthesis approach. Through these approaches, we can control and improve the production of interesting flavonoids or their derivatives for the treatment of cancer.

Secondary Metabolites of the Genus Amycolatopsis: Structures, Bioactivities and Biosynthesis

Actinomycetes are regarded as important sources for the generation of various bioactive secondary metabolites with rich chemical and bioactive diversities. Amycolatopsis falls under the rare actinomycete genus with the potential to produce antibiotics. In this review, all literatures were searched in the Web of Science, Google Scholar and PubMed up to March 2021. The keywords used in the search strategy were “Amycolatopsis”, “secondary metabolite”, “new or novel compound”, “bioactivity”, “biosynthetic pathway” and “derivatives”. The objective in this review is to summarize the chemical structures and biological activities of secondary metabolites from the genus Amycolatopsis. A total of 159 compounds derived from 8 known and 18 unidentified species are summarized in this paper. These secondary metabolites are mainly categorized into polyphenols, linear polyketides, macrolides, macrolactams, thiazolyl peptides, cyclic peptides, glycopeptides, amide and amino derivatives, glycoside derivatives, enediyne derivatives and sesquiterpenes. Meanwhile, they mainly showed unique antimicrobial, anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-hyperglycemic, and enzyme inhibition activities. In addition, the biosynthetic pathways of several potent bioactive compounds and derivatives are included and the prospect of the chemical substances obtained from Amycolatopsis is also discussed to provide ideas for their implementation in the field of therapeutics and drug discovery.

Enzymatic spiroketal formation via oxidative rearrangement of pentangular polyketides

The structural complexity and bioactivity of natural products often depend on enzymatic redox tailoring steps. This is exemplified by the generation of the bisbenzannulated [5,6]-spiroketal pharmacophore in the bacterial rubromycin family of aromatic polyketides, which exhibit a wide array of bioactivities such as the inhibition of HIV reverse transcriptase or DNA helicase. Here we elucidate the complex flavoenzyme-driven formation of the rubromycin pharmacophore that is markedly distinct from conventional (bio)synthetic strategies for spiroketal formation. Accordingly, a polycyclic aromatic precursor undergoes extensive enzymatic oxidative rearrangement catalyzed by two flavoprotein monooxygenases and a flavoprotein oxidase that ultimately results in a drastic distortion of the carbon skeleton. The one-pot in vitro reconstitution of the key enzymatic steps as well as the comprehensive characterization of reactive intermediates allow to unravel the intricate underlying reactions, during which four carbon-carbon bonds are broken and two CO₂ become eliminated. This work provides detailed insight into perplexing redox tailoring enzymology that sets the stage for the (chemo)enzymatic production and bioengineering of bioactive spiroketal-containing polyketides.

Rubromycin family of natural products belongs to aromatic polyketides with diverse bioactivities, but details of their biosynthesis are limited. Here, the authors report the complete in vitro reconstitution of enzymatic formation of the spiroketal moiety of rubromycin polyketides, driven by flavin-dependent enzymes, and characterize reaction intermediates.

Differential mass spectrometry-based proteome analyses unveil major regulatory hubs in rifamycin B production in Amycolatopsis mediterranei

Rifamycin B is produced by Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699 as a secondary metabolite. Its semi-synthetic derivatives have been used for curing tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. But the emergence of rifampicin-resistant strains required analogs of rifamycin B to be developed by rifamycin biosynthetic gene cluster manipulation. In 2014 genetic engineering of the rifamycin polyketide synthase gene cluster in S699 led to a mutant, A. mediterranei DCO#34, that produced 24-desmethylrifamycin B. Unfortunately, the productivity was strongly reduced to 20 mgL^-1 as compared to 50 mgL^-1 of rifamycin B. To understand the mechanisms leading to reduced productivity and rifamycin biosynthesis by A. mediterranei S699 during the early and late growth phase we performed a proteome study for wild type strain S699, mutant DCO#34, and the non-producer strain SCO2-2. Proteins identification and relative label-free quantification were performed by nLC-MS/MS. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD016416. Also, in-silico protein-protein interaction approach was used to determine the relationship between different structural and regulatory proteins involved in rifamycin biosynthesis. Our studies revealed RifA, RifK, RifL, Rif-Orf19 as the major regulatory hubs. Relative abundance expression values revealed that genes encoding RifC-RifI and the transporter RifP, down-regulated in DCO#34 and genes encoding RifR, RifZ, other regulatory proteins up-regulated. SIGNIFICANCE: The study is designed mainly to understand the underlying mechanisms of rifamycin biosynthesis in Amycolatopsis mediterranei. This resulted in the identification of regulatory hubs which play a crucial role in regulating secondary metabolism. It elucidates the complex mechanism of secondary metabolite biosynthesis and their conversion and extracellular transportation in temporal correlation with the different growth phases. The study also elucidated the mechanisms leading to reduced production of analog, 24-desmethylrifamycin B by the genetically modified strain DCO#34, derivatives of which have been found effective against rifampicin-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. These results can be useful while carrying out genetic manipulations to improve the strains of Amycolatopsis to produce better analogs/drugs and promote the eradication of TB. Thus, this study is contributing significantly to the growing knowledge in the field of the crucial drug, rifamycin B biosynthesis by an economically important bacterium Amycolatopsis mediterranei.

Molecular engineering of antimicrobial peptides: microbial targets, peptide motifs and translation opportunities

The global public health threat of antimicrobial resistance has led the scientific community to highly engage into research on alternative strategies to the traditional small molecule therapeutics. Here, we review one of the most popular alternatives amongst basic and applied research scientists, synthetic antimicrobial peptides. The ease of peptide chemical synthesis combined with emerging engineering principles and potent broad-spectrum activity, including against multidrug-resistant strains, has motivated intense scientific focus on these compounds for the past decade. This global effort has resulted in significant advances in our understanding of peptide antimicrobial activity at the molecular scale. Recent evidence of molecular targets other than the microbial lipid membrane, and efforts towards consensus antimicrobial peptide motifs, have supported the rise of molecular engineering approaches and design tools, including machine learning. Beyond molecular concepts, supramolecular chemistry has been lately added to the debate; and helped unravel the impact of peptide self-assembly on activity, including on biofilms and secondary targets, while providing new directions in pharmaceutical formulation through taking advantage of peptide self-assembled nanostructures. We argue that these basic research advances constitute a solid basis for promising industry translation of rationally designed synthetic peptide antimicrobials, not only as novel drugs against multidrug-resistant strains but also as components of emerging antimicrobial biomaterials. This perspective is supported by recent developments of innovative peptide-based and peptide-carrier nanobiomaterials that we also review.

Amycolasporins and Dibenzoyls from Lichen-Associated Amycolatopsis hippodromi and Their Antibacterial and Anti-inflammatory Activities

Eleven metabolites, six echinosporins (1-6), four dibenzoyls (7-10), and an aromatic compound (11), were isolated from the fermentation broth of lichen-associated Amycolatopsis hippodromi. The structures of the new compounds (1-5, 8-11) were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analysis including data from experimental and calculated ECD spectra. Amycolasporins A-C (1-3) demonstrated antibacterial activities against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli with MIC values of 25 or 100 μg/mL. Amycolasporin C (3) and the known dibenzoyl (7) attenuated the production of NO due to the suppression of the expression of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells in a dose-dependent manner.

Diverse Secondary Metabolites from a Lichen-Derived Amycolatopsis Strain

In this study, the secondary metabolites of a lichen-derived actinomycete strain Amycolatopsis sp. YIM 130687 were investigated intensively by using three different media (4^#, 302^#, and 312^#) for fermentation. A total of 21 compounds were isolated from the fermented extraction of the strain. The structures of all compounds were identified by the examination of HRESIMS and NMR spectra. Compounds 1-3, 5, 6, 21 were only found in the cultivation on 302^# medium, while compounds 4, 9-11 were only obtained when the strain was cultured on 312^# medium. On the other hand, compounds 7, 8, and 20 were only isolated from the fermentation product on 4^# medium. The antimicrobial activity test showed that compound 9 had significant inhibitory effects on bacterial pathogens of Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA with the MICs of 2 μg/ml and fungal pathogens of Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium graminearum with the MICs of 1 μg/ml.

Bacteria as genetically programmable producers of bioactive natural products

Next to plants, bacteria account for most of the biomass on Earth. They are found everywhere, although certain species thrive only in specific ecological niches. These microorganisms biosynthesize a plethora of both primary and secondary metabolites, defined, respectively, as those required for the growth and maintenance of cellular functions and those not required for survival but offering a selective advantage for the producer under certain conditions. As a result, bacterial fermentation has long been used to manufacture valuable natural products of nutritional, agrochemical and pharmaceutical interest. The interactions of secondary metabolites with their biological targets have been optimized by millions of years of evolution and they are, thus, considered to be privileged chemical structures, not only for drug discovery. During the last two decades, functional genomics has allowed for an in-depth understanding of the underlying biosynthetic logic of secondary metabolites. This has, in turn, paved the way for the unprecedented use of bacteria as programmable biochemical workhorses. In this Review, we discuss the multifaceted use of bacteria as biological factories in diverse applications and highlight recent advances in targeted genetic engineering of bacteria for the production of valuable bioactive compounds. Emphasis is on current advances to access nature's abundance of natural products.

Integrating vectors for genetic studies in the rare Actinomycete Amycolatopsis marina

Background

Few natural product pathways from rare Actinomycetes have been studied due to the difficulty in applying molecular approaches in these genetically intractable organisms. In this study, we sought to identify more integrating vectors, using phage int/attP loci, that would efficiently integrate site-specifically in the rare Actinomycete, Amycolatopsis marina DSM45569.

Results

Analysis of the genome of A. marina DSM45569 indicated the presence of attB-like sequences for TG1 and R4 integrases. The TG1 and R4 attBs were active in in vitro recombination assays with their cognate purified integrases and attP loci. Integrating vectors containing either the TG1 or R4 int/attP loci yielded exconjugants in conjugation assays from Escherichia coli to A. marina DSM45569. Site-specific recombination of the plasmids into the host TG1 or R4 attB sites was confirmed by sequencing.

Conclusions

The homologous TG1 and R4 attB sites within the genus Amycolatopsis have been identified. The results indicate that vectors based on TG1 and R4 integrases could be widely applicable in this genus.

Carbamothioic S-acid derivative and kigamicins, the activated production of silent metabolites in Amycolatopsis alba DSM 44262Δabm9 elicited by N-acetyl-D-glucosamine

One new carbamothioic S-acid derivative (1) and five known kigamicin derivatives (2-6) were isolated from the fermentation extract of Amycolatopsis alba DSM 44262Δabm9 elicited by N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. HPLC-DAD-UV analyses indicated that the DSM 44262Δabm9 strain did not produce these metabolites originally and the production of 1-6 was induced by adding 25 mM N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in the culture medium. The structures of 1-6 were identified on the basis of NMR spectroscopic data and high-resolution ESIMS. These results highlight that addition of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in the microbial culture medium could activate cryptic gene expression, induce and increase the production of new or known secondary metabolites.

Concepts and Methods to Access Novel Antibiotics from Actinomycetes

Actinomycetes have been proven to be an excellent source of secondary metabolites for more than half a century. Exhibiting various bioactivities, they provide valuable approved drugs in clinical use. Most microorganisms are still untapped in terms of their capacity to produce secondary metabolites, since only a small fraction can be cultured in the laboratory. Thus, improving cultivation techniques to extend the range of secondary metabolite producers accessible under laboratory conditions is an important first step in prospecting underexplored sources for the isolation of novel antibiotics. Currently uncultured actinobacteria can be made available by bioprospecting extreme or simply habitats other than soil. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis of genomes reveals most producers to harbour many more biosynthetic gene clusters than compounds identified from any single strain, which translates into a silent biosynthetic potential of the microbial world for the production of yet unknown natural products. This review covers discovery strategies and innovative methods recently employed to access the untapped reservoir of natural products. The focus is the order of actinomycetes although most approaches are similarly applicable to other microbes. Advanced cultivation methods, genomics- and metagenomics-based approaches, as well as modern metabolomics-inspired methods are highlighted to emphasise the interplay of different disciplines to improve access to novel natural products.