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Shu H, Shen Y, Wang H, Sun X, Ma J, Lin X. Biogenic Phosphonate Utilization by Globally Distributed Diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. Microorganisms 2024; 12:761. [PMID: 38674705 PMCID: PMC11051927 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12040761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2024] [Revised: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Phosphonates are a class of organic phosphorus (P) compounds that contribute ~25% of dissolved organic P. Recent studies reveal the important role of phosphonates mediated by prokaryotes in the marine P redox cycle. However, its bioavailability by eukaryotic phytoplankton is under debate. 2-Aminoethylphosphonic acid (2-AEP) and 2-amino-3-phosphonopropionic acid (2-AP3) are two biogenic phosphonates in the marine environment. Here, Thalassiosira pseudonana, a common diatom species in the ocean, is able to recover growth from P starvation when provided with 2-AEP and 2-AP3. Moreover, 2-AEP cultures exhibited a more similar growth rate at 12 °C than at 25 °C when compared with inorganic P cultures. The cellular stoichiometry of 2-AEP groups was further determined, the values of which are in-between the P-depleted and DIP-replete cultures. This study provides evidence that biogenic phosphonates could be adopted as alternative P sources to support diatom growth and may provide physiological adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huilin Shu
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; (H.S.); (Y.S.); (H.W.); (X.S.); (J.M.)
- College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
- College of Life Sciences, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China
| | - Yuan Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; (H.S.); (Y.S.); (H.W.); (X.S.); (J.M.)
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
| | - Hongwei Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; (H.S.); (Y.S.); (H.W.); (X.S.); (J.M.)
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
| | - Xueqiong Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; (H.S.); (Y.S.); (H.W.); (X.S.); (J.M.)
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
| | - Jian Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; (H.S.); (Y.S.); (H.W.); (X.S.); (J.M.)
- College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
| | - Xin Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; (H.S.); (Y.S.); (H.W.); (X.S.); (J.M.)
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
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Abstract
Organophosphonic acids are unique as natural products in terms of stability and mimicry. The C-P bond that defines these compounds resists hydrolytic cleavage, while the phosphonyl group is a versatile mimic of transition-states, intermediates, and primary metabolites. This versatility may explain why a variety of organisms have extensively explored the use organophosphonic acids as bioactive secondary metabolites. Several of these compounds, such as fosfomycin and bialaphos, figure prominently in human health and agriculture. The enzyme reactions that create these molecules are an interesting mix of chemistry that has been adopted from primary metabolism as well as those with no chemical precedent. Additionally, the phosphonate moiety represents a source of inorganic phosphate to microorganisms that live in environments that lack this nutrient; thus, unusual enzyme reactions have also evolved to cleave the C-P bond. This review is a comprehensive summary of the occurrence and function of organophosphonic acids natural products along with the mechanisms of the enzymes that synthesize and catabolize these molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geoff P Horsman
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Wilfrid Laurier University , Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada
| | - David L Zechel
- Department of Chemistry, Queen's University , Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
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McGrath JW, Chin JP, Quinn JP. Organophosphonates revealed: new insights into the microbial metabolism of ancient molecules. Nat Rev Microbiol 2013; 11:412-9. [PMID: 23624813 DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro3011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 131] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Organophosphonates are ancient molecules that contain the chemically stable C-P bond, which is considered a relic of the reducing atmosphere on primitive earth. Synthetic phosphonates now have a wide range of applications in the agricultural, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. However, the existence of C-P compounds as contemporary biogenic molecules was not discovered until 1959, with the identification of 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid in rumen protozoa. Here, we review advances in our understanding of the biochemistry and genetics of microbial phosphonate metabolism, and discuss the role of these compounds and of the organisms engaged in their turnover within the P cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- John W McGrath
- School of Biological Sciences and the Institute for Global Food Security, The Queens University of Belfast, Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland
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Quinn JP, Kulakova AN, Cooley NA, McGrath JW. New ways to break an old bond: the bacterial carbon?phosphorus hydrolases and their role in biogeochemical phosphorus cycling. Environ Microbiol 2007; 9:2392-400. [PMID: 17803765 DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01397.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Phosphonates are organophosphorus molecules that contain the highly stable C-P bond, rather than the more common, and more labile, C-O-P phosphate ester bond. They have ancient origins but their biosynthesis is widespread among more primitive organisms and their importance in the contemporary biosphere is increasingly recognized; for example phosphonate-P is believed to play a particularly significant role in the productivity of the oceans. The microbial degradation of phosphonates was originally thought to occur only under conditions of phosphate limitation, mediated exclusively by the poorly characterized C-P lyase multienzyme system, under Pho regulon control. However, more recent studies have demonstrated the Pho-independent mineralization by environmental bacteria of three of the most widely distributed biogenic phosphonates: 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid (ciliatine), phosphonoacetic acid, and 2-amino-3-phosphonopropionic acid (phosphonoalanine). The three phosphonohydrolases responsible have unique specificities and are members of separate enzyme superfamilies; their expression is regulated by distinct members of the LysR family of bacterial transcriptional regulators, for each of which the phosphonate substrate of the respective degradative operon serves as coinducer. Previously no organophosphorus compound was known to induce the enzymes required for its own degradation. Whole-genome and metagenome sequence analysis indicates that the genes encoding these newly described C-P hydrolases are distributed widely among prokaryotes. As they are able to function under conditions in which C-P lyases are inactive, the three enzymes may play a hitherto-unrecognized role in phosphonate breakdown in the environment and hence make a significant contribution to global biogeochemical P-cycling.
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Affiliation(s)
- John P Quinn
- School of Biological Sciences, and QUESTOR Centre, The Queen's University of Belfast, 97, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK.
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SMITH JOSEPHDONALD, KING JEFFERYC, HOLLAND ERICC. Phosphonoacetic Acid: Effect on and Disposition byTetrahymena1. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1982.tb02888.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Kulakova AN, Wisdom GB, Kulakov LA, Quinn JP. The purification and characterization of phosphonopyruvate hydrolase, a novel carbon-phosphorus bond cleavage enzyme from Variovorax sp Pal2. J Biol Chem 2003; 278:23426-31. [PMID: 12697754 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m301871200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Phosphonopyruvate hydrolase, a novel bacterial carbon-phosphorus bond cleavage enzyme, was purified to homogeneity by a series of chromatographic steps from cell extracts of a newly isolated environmental strain of Variovorax sp. Pal2. The enzyme was inducible in the presence of phosphonoalanine or phosphonopyruvate; unusually, its expression was independent of the phosphate status of the cell. The native enzyme had a molecular mass of 63 kDa with a subunit mass of 31.2 kDa. Activity of purified phosphonopyruvate hydrolase was Co2+-dependent and showed a pH optimum of 6.7-7.0. The enzyme had a Km of 0.53 mm for its sole substrate, phosphonopyruvate, and was inhibited by the analogues phosphonoformic acid, 3-phosphonopropionic acid, and hydroxymethylphosphonic acid. The nucleotide sequence of the phosphonopyruvate hydrolase structural gene indicated that it is a member of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphomutase/isocitrate lyase superfamily with 41% identity at the amino acid level to the carbon-to-phosphorus bond-forming enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate phosphomutase from Tetrahymena pyriformis. Thus its apparently ancient evolutionary origins differ from those of each of the two carbon-phosphorus hydrolases that have been reported previously; phosphonoacetaldehyde hydrolase is a member of the haloacetate dehalogenase family, whereas phosphonoacetate hydrolase belongs to the alkaline phosphatase superfamily of zinc-dependent hydrolases. Phosphonopyruvate hydrolase is likely to be of considerable significance in global phosphorus cycling, because phosphonopyruvate is known to be a key intermediate in the formation of all naturally occurring compounds that contain the carbon-phosphorus bond.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna N Kulakova
- School of Biology and Biochemistry, Medical Biology Centre, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland
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Phosphoenolpyruvate phosphomutase activity in an L-phosphonoalanine-mineralizing strain of burkholderia cepacia. Appl Environ Microbiol 1998; 64:2291-4. [PMID: 9603854 PMCID: PMC106318 DOI: 10.1128/aem.64.6.2291-2294.1998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
A strain of Burkholderia cepacia isolated by enrichment culture utilized L-2-amino-3-phosphonopropionic acid (phosphonoalanine) at concentrations up to 20 mM as a carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus source in a phosphate-insensitive manner. Cells contained phosphoenolpyruvate phosphomutase activity, presumed to be responsible for cleavage of the C---P bond of phosphonopyruvate, the transamination product of L-phosphonoalanine; this was inducible in the presence of phosphonoalanine.
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Szwergold BS, Kappler F, Cohen LH, Nanavati D, Brown TR. Identification of a naturally occurring methyl-ester of phosphate, methyl-phosphorylcholine (methyl-2-(N,N,N trimethylamino) ethyl phosphate), in the eggs of the sea urchin S. purpuratus. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 1990; 172:855-61. [PMID: 2241973 DOI: 10.1016/0006-291x(90)90754-b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
A novel metabolite of choline, phosphorylcholine methyl ester, has been identified in the eggs of S. purpuratus wherein it is present at approximately 1 mM concentration. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first instance of a phosphoryl-methyl-ester to be observed in nature. The compound appears to be species specific, since it has not been observed in other species such as L. pictus and P. depressus. In S. purpuratus its distribution is confined to the ovary, eggs and embryos, and is absent from young animals following metamorphosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- B S Szwergold
- Dept. of NMR and Medical Spectroscopy, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pa. 19111
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Smith JD, Giegel DA. Effect of a phosphonic acid analog of choline phosphate on phospholipid metabolism in Tetrahymena. Arch Biochem Biophys 1982; 213:595-601. [PMID: 7073293 DOI: 10.1016/0003-9861(82)90589-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
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