Structure-Based Engineering of Angucyclinone 6-Ketoreductases

Divergence of Classical and C-Ring-Cleaved Angucyclines: Elucidation of Early Tailoring Steps in Lugdunomycin and Thioangucycline Biosynthesis

Angucyclines are an important group of microbial natural products that display tremendous chemical diversity. Classical angucyclines are composed of a tetracyclic benz[a]anthracene scaffold with one ring attached at an angular orientation. However, in atypical angucyclines, the polyaromatic aglycone is cleaved at A-, B-, or C-rings, leading to structural rearrangements and enabling further chemical variety. Here, we have elucidated the branching points in angucycline biosynthesis leading toward cleavage of the C-ring in lugdunomycin and thioangucycline biosynthesis. We showed that 12-hydroxylation and 6-ketoreduction of UWM6 are shared steps in classical and C-ring-cleaved angucycline pathways, although the bifunctional 6-ketoreductase LugOIIred harbors additional unique 1-ketoreductase activity. We identified formation of the key intermediate 8-O-methyltetrangomycin by the LugN methyltransferase as the branching point toward C-ring-cleaved angucyclines. The final common step in lugdunomycin and thioangucycline biosynthesis is quinone reduction, catalyzed by the 7-ketoreductases LugG and TacO, respectively. In turn, the committing step toward thioangucyclines is 12-ketoreduction catalyzed by TacA, for which no orthologous protein exists on the lugdunomycin pathway. Our results confirm that quinone reductions are early tailoring steps and, therefore, may be mechanistically important for subsequent C-ring cleavage. Finally, many of the tailoring enzymes harbored broad substrate promiscuity, which we utilized in combinatorial enzymatic syntheses to generate the angucyclines SM 196 A and hydranthomycin. We propose that enzyme promiscuity and the competition of many of the enzymes for the same substrates lead to a branching biosynthetic network and formation of numerous shunt products typical for angucyclines rather than a canonical linear metabolic pathway.

A Standalone β-Ketoreductase Acts Concomitantly with Biosynthesis of the Antimycin Scaffold

Antimycins are anticancer compounds produced by a hybrid nonribosomal peptide synthetase/polyketide synthase (NRPS/PKS) pathway. The biosynthesis of these compounds is well characterized, with the exception of the standalone β-ketoreductase enzyme AntM that is proposed to catalyze the reduction of the C8 carbonyl of the antimycin scaffold. Inactivation of antM and structural characterization suggested that rather than functioning as a post-PKS tailoring enzyme, AntM acts upon the terminal biosynthetic intermediate while it is tethered to the PKS acyl carrier protein. Mutational analysis identified two amino acid residues (Tyr185 and Phe223) that are proposed to serve as checkpoints controlling substrate access to the AntM active site. Aromatic checkpoint residues are conserved in uncharacterized standalone β-ketoreductases, indicating that they may also act concomitantly with synthesis of the scaffold. These data provide novel mechanistic insights into the functionality of standalone β-ketoreductases and will enable their reprogramming for combinatorial biosynthesis.

Structural comparison of Acinetobacter baumannii β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein reductases in fatty acid and aryl polyene biosynthesis

Some Gram-negative bacteria harbor lipids with aryl polyene (APE) moieties. Biosynthesis gene clusters (BGCs) for APE biosynthesis exhibit striking similarities with fatty acid synthase (FAS) genes. Despite their broad distribution among pathogenic and symbiotic bacteria, the detailed roles of the metabolic products of APE gene clusters are unclear. Here, we determined the crystal structures of the β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) reductase ApeQ produced by an APE gene cluster from clinically isolated virulent Acinetobacter baumannii in two states (bound and unbound to NADPH). An in vitro visible absorption spectrum assay of the APE polyene moiety revealed that the β-ketoacyl-ACP reductase FabG from the A. baumannii FAS gene cluster cannot be substituted for ApeQ in APE biosynthesis. Comparison with the FabG structure exhibited distinct surface electrostatic potential profiles for ApeQ, suggesting a positively charged arginine patch as the cognate ACP-binding site. Binding modeling for the aryl group predicted that Leu185 (Phe183 in FabG) in ApeQ is responsible for 4-benzoyl moiety recognition. Isothermal titration and arginine patch mutagenesis experiments corroborated these results. These structure-function insights of a unique reductase in the APE BGC in comparison with FAS provide new directions for elucidating host-pathogen interaction mechanisms and novel antibiotics discovery.

Functional and Structural Insights into a Novel Promiscuous Ketoreductase of the Lugdunomycin Biosynthetic Pathway

Angucyclines are a structurally diverse class of actinobacterial natural products defined by their varied polycyclic ring systems, which display a wide range of biological activities. We recently discovered lugdunomycin (1), a highly rearranged polyketide antibiotic derived from the angucycline backbone that is synthesized via several yet unexplained enzymatic reactions. Here, we show via in vivo, in vitro, and structural analysis that the promiscuous reductase LugOII catalyzes both a C6 and an unprecedented C1 ketoreduction. This then sets the stage for the subsequent C-ring cleavage that is key to the rearranged scaffolds of 1. The 1.1 Å structures of LugOII in complex with either ligand 8-O-Methylrabelomycin (4) or 8-O-Methyltetrangomycin (5) and of apoenzyme were resolved, which revealed a canonical Rossman fold and a remarkable conformational change during substrate capture and release. Mutational analysis uncovered key residues for substrate access, position, and catalysis as well as specific determinants that control its dual functionality. The insights obtained in this work hold promise for the discovery and engineering of other promiscuous reductases that may be harnessed for the generation of novel biocatalysts for chemoenzymatic applications.

Structure and biosynthesis of mayamycin B, a new polyketide with antibacterial activity from Streptomyces sp. 120454

Mayamycin B, a new antibacterial type II polyketide, together with its known congener mayamycin A, were isolated from Streptomyces sp. 120454. The structure of new compound was elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and comparison with literature data. Sequencing and bioinformatics analysis revealed the biosynthetic gene cluster for mayamycins A and B.

New insights into bacterial type II polyketide biosynthesis

Bacterial aromatic polyketides, exemplified by anthracyclines, angucyclines, tetracyclines, and pentangular polyphenols, are a large family of natural products with diverse structures and biological activities and are usually biosynthesized by type II polyketide synthases (PKSs). Since the starting point of biosynthesis and combinatorial biosynthesis in 1984–1985, there has been a continuous effort to investigate the biosynthetic logic of aromatic polyketides owing to the urgent need of developing promising therapeutic candidates from these compounds. Recently, significant advances in the structural and mechanistic identification of enzymes involved in aromatic polyketide biosynthesis have been made on the basis of novel genetic, biochemical, and chemical technologies. This review highlights the progress in bacterial type II PKSs in the past three years (2013–2016). Moreover, novel compounds discovered or created by genome mining and biosynthetic engineering are also included.

Evolution inspired engineering of antibiotic biosynthesis enzymes

Chimeragenesis is an effective tool to probe the structure/function relationships of proteins without high-throughput screening systems. Here the proof-of-principle is presented with three pairs of proteins.

Comprehensive Analysis of a Novel Ketoreductase for Pentangular Polyphenol Biosynthesis

Arixanthomycins are pentangular polyphenols (PP) with potent antiproliferative activities that were discovered through the heterologous expression of environmental DNA-derived gene clusters. The biosynthesis of arixanthomycin and other PPs is unusual because it requires several novel type II polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes for its complete maturation. Most type II PKSs contain a ketoreductase (KR) that mediates the C7-C12 first ring cyclization and C-9 reduction. In contrast, based on previous studies of product analysis and genome mining, the arixanthomycin (ARX) gene cluster harbors a C-11 reducing KR (ARX 27), a C9-C14 first-ring aromatase/cyclase (ARX 19), and an unprecedented C-17 and C-19 reducing KR (ARX 21). While bioinformatics is useful for predicting novel enzymes, the functions of ARX 19, ARX 21, and ARX 27 have yet to be confirmed. Further, the structural features that predispose the ARX biosynthetic enzymes to process atypical poly-β-ketone scaffolds remain unknown. We report the crystal structure of ARX 21, the first structure of an enzyme involved in PP biosynthesis and likely a C-17 and C-19 reducing-KR, which is structurally similar to C-15 reducing KRs. Structural comparison of ARX 21 and other C-9 reducing KRs revealed a difference in the enzyme active site that may enlighten the molecular basis of KR substrate specificity. In addition, we report the successful in vitro reconstitution of ARX 19. The structural characterization of ARX 21 in conjunction with the in vitro results of ARX 19 lays the groundwork toward a complete in vitro and structural characterization of type II PKS enzymes involved in PP biogenesis.

Substrate-Assisted Catalysis in Polyketide Reduction Proceeds via a Phenolate Intermediate

SimC7 is a polyketide ketoreductase involved in biosynthesis of the angucyclinone moiety of the gyrase inhibitor simocyclinone D8 (SD8). SimC7, which belongs to the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) superfamily, catalyzes reduction of the C-7 carbonyl of the angucyclinone, and the resulting hydroxyl is essential for antibiotic activity. SimC7 shares little sequence similarity with characterized ketoreductases, suggesting it might have a distinct mechanism. To investigate this possibility, we determined the structures of SimC7 alone, with NADP⁺, and with NADP⁺ and the substrate 7-oxo-SD8. These structures show that SimC7 is distinct from previously characterized polyketide ketoreductases, lacking the conserved catalytic triad, including the active-site tyrosine that acts as central acid-base catalyst in canonical SDR proteins. Taken together with functional analyses of active-site mutants, our data suggest that SimC7 catalyzes a substrate-assisted, two-step reaction for reduction of the C-7 carbonyl group involving intramolecular transfer of a substrate-derived proton to generate a phenolate intermediate.

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SimC7 catalyzes reduction of the C-7 carbonyl of the angucyclinone of simocyclinone

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SimC7 lacks the conserved catalytic triad characteristic of canonical ketoreductases

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SimC7 reduces the C-7 carbonyl via a substrate-assisted, two-step reaction

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This involves intramolecular transfer of a substrate proton to generate a phenolate