Interrogation of Benzomalvin Biosynthesis Using Fungal Artificial Chromosomes with Metabolomic Scoring (FAC-MS): Discovery of a Benzodiazepine Synthase Activity

Porphyrin Atropisomerism as a Molecular Engineering Tool in Medicinal Chemistry, Molecular Recognition, Supramolecular Assembly, and Catalysis

Porphyrin atropisomerism, which arises from restricted σ-bond rotation between the macrocycle and a sufficiently bulky substituent, was identified in 1969 by Gottwald and Ullman in 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(o-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrins. Henceforth, an entirely new field has emerged utilizing this transformative tool. This review strives to explain the consequences of atropisomerism in porphyrins, the methods which have been developed for their separation and analysis and present the diverse array of applications. Porphyrins alone possess intriguing properties and a structure which can be easily decorated and molded for a specific function. Therefore, atropisomerism serves as a transformative tool, making it possible to obtain even a specific molecular shape. Atropisomerism has been thoroughly exploited in catalysis and molecular recognition yet presents both challenges and opportunities in medicinal chemistry.

Total Synthesis of Racemic Benzomalvin E, a Quinazolinone Isolated from Pencilium sp. FN070315 and Exploration to the Direct Synthesis of (E)-Benzomalvin B

We present the first total synthesis of (±) benzomalvin E, featuring a quinazolino moiety with a 6-6-6-7-fused tetracyclic skeleton containing three nitrogen atoms. The key transformation involves Cu-catalyzed intramolecular C-N arylation of quinazolinone, leading to a sclerotigenin analogue that undergoes nucleophilic addition with benzaldehyde, enabling the synthesis of (±) benzomalvin E in six linear steps with a 33% overall yield. The (±) benzomalvin E's structure was validated by 2-D NMR and single crystal XRD analysis and was further transformed into (E)-benzomalvin B.

Terpenoid balance in Aspergillus nidulans unveiled by heterologous squalene synthase expression

Filamentous fungi produce numerous uncharacterized natural products (NPs) that are often challenging to characterize because of cryptic expression in laboratory conditions. Previously, we have successfully isolated novel NPs by expressing fungal artificial chromosomes (FACs) from a variety of fungal species into Aspergillus nidulans. Here, we demonstrate a twist to FAC utility wherein heterologous expression of a Pseudogymnoascus destructans FAC in A. nidulans altered endogenous terpene biosynthetic pathways. In contrast to wild type, the FAC transformant produced increased levels of squalene and aspernidine type compounds, including three new nidulenes (1- 2, and 5), and lost nearly all ability to synthesize the major A. nidulans characteristic terpene, austinol. Deletion of a squalene synthase gene in the FAC restored wild-type chemical profiles. The altered squalene to farnesyl pyrophosphate ratio leading to synthesis of nidulenes and aspernidines at the expense of farnesyl pyrophosphate-derived austinols provides unexpected insight into routes of terpene synthesis in fungi.

Terpenoid balance in Aspergillus nidulans unveiled by heterologous squalene synthase expression

Filamentous fungi produce numerous uncharacterized natural products (NPs) that are often challenging to characterize due to cryptic expression in laboratory conditions. Previously, we have successfully isolated novel NPs by expressing fungal artificial chromosomes (FACs) from a variety of fungal species into Aspergillus nidulans. Here, we demonstrate a new twist to FAC utility wherein heterologous expression of a Pseudogymnoascus destructans FAC in A. nidulans altered endogenous terpene biosynthetic pathways. In contrast to wildtype, the FAC transformant produced increased levels of squalene and aspernidine type compounds, including three new nidulenes (1-2, 5), and lost nearly all ability to synthesize the major A. nidulans characteristic terpene, austinol. Deletion of a squalene synthase gene in the FAC restored wildtype chemical profiles. The altered squalene to farnesyl pyrophosphate ratio leading to synthesis of nidulenes and aspernidines at the expense of farnesyl pyrophosphate derived austinols provides unexpected insight into routes of terpene synthesis in fungi.

Metabolomics and genomics in natural products research: complementary tools for targeting new chemical entities

Covering: 2010 to 2021Organisms in nature have evolved into proficient synthetic chemists, utilizing specialized enzymatic machinery to biosynthesize an inspiring diversity of secondary metabolites. Often serving to boost competitive advantage for their producers, these secondary metabolites have widespread human impacts as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and antifungal drugs. The natural products discovery field has begun a shift away from traditional activity-guided approaches and is beginning to take advantage of increasingly available metabolomics and genomics datasets to explore undiscovered chemical space. Major strides have been made and now enable -omics-informed prioritization of chemical structures for discovery, including the prospect of confidently linking metabolites to their biosynthetic pathways. Over the last decade, more integrated strategies now provide researchers with pipelines for simultaneous identification of expressed secondary metabolites and their biosynthetic machinery. However, continuous collaboration by the natural products community will be required to optimize strategies for effective evaluation of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters to accelerate discovery efforts. Here, we provide an evaluative guide to scientific literature as it relates to studying natural product biosynthesis using genomics, metabolomics, and their integrated datasets. Particular emphasis is placed on the unique insights that can be gained from large-scale integrated strategies, and we provide source organism-specific considerations to evaluate the gaps in our current knowledge.

Developing fungal heterologous expression platforms to explore and improve the production of natural products from fungal biodiversity

Natural products from fungi represent an important source of biologically active metabolites notably for therapeutic agent development. Genome sequencing revealed that the number of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in fungi is much larger than expected. Unfortunately, most of them are silent or barely expressed under laboratory culture conditions. Moreover, many fungi in nature are uncultivable or cannot be genetically manipulated, restricting the extraction and identification of bioactive metabolites from these species. Rapid exploration of the tremendous number of cryptic fungal BGCs necessitates the development of heterologous expression platforms, which will facilitate the efficient production of natural products in fungal cell factories. Host selection, BGC assembly methods, promoters used for heterologous gene expression, metabolic engineering strategies and compartmentalization of biosynthetic pathways are key aspects for consideration to develop such a microbial platform. In the present review, we summarize current progress on the above challenges to promote research effort in the relevant fields.

Biosynthetic Cyclization Catalysts for the Assembly of Peptide and Polyketide Natural Products

Many biologically active natural products are synthesized by nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), polyketide synthases (PKSs) and their hybrids. These megasynthetases contain modules possessing distinct catalytic domains that allow for substrate initiation, chain extension, processing and termination. At the end of a module, a terminal domain, usually a thioesterase (TE), is responsible for catalyzing the release of the NRPS or PKS as a linear or cyclized product. In this review, we address the general cyclization mechanism of the TE domain, including oligomerization and the fungal C-C bond forming Claisen-like cyclases (CLCs). Additionally, we include examples of cyclization catalysts acting within or at the end of a module. Furthermore, condensation-like (CT) domains, terminal reductase (R) domains, reductase-like domains that catalyze Dieckmann condensation (RD), thioesterase-like Dieckmann cyclases, trans-acting TEs from the penicillin binding protein (PBP) enzyme family, product template (PT) domains and others will also be reviewed. The studies summarized here highlight the remarkable diversity of NRPS and PKS cyclization catalysts for the production of biologically relevant, complex cyclic natural products and related compounds.

In the fungus where it happens: History and future propelling Aspergillus nidulans as the archetype of natural products research

In 1990 the first fungal secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene was cloned in Aspergillus nidulans. Thirty years later, >30 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) have been linked to specific natural products in this one fungal species. While impressive, over half of the BGCs in A. nidulans remain uncharacterized and their compounds structurally and functionally unknown. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of past advances that have enabled A. nidulans to rise to its current status as a natural product powerhouse focusing on the discovery and annotation of secondary metabolite clusters. From genome sequencing, heterologous expression, and metabolomics to CRISPR and epigenetic manipulations, we present a guided tour through the evolution of technologies developed and utilized in the last 30 years. These insights provide perspective to future efforts to fully unlock the biosynthetic potential of A. nidulans and, by extension, the potential of other filamentous fungi.

Heterologous Expression of the Unusual Terreazepine Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Reveals a Promising Approach for Identifying New Chemical Scaffolds

Advances in genome sequencing have revitalized natural product discovery efforts, revealing the untapped biosynthetic potential of fungi. While the volume of genomic data continues to expand, discovery efforts are slowed due to the time-consuming nature of experiments required to characterize new molecules. To direct efforts toward uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters most likely to encode novel chemical scaffolds, we took advantage of comparative metabolomics and heterologous gene expression using fungal artificial chromosomes (FACs). By linking mass spectral profiles with structural clues provided by FAC-encoded gene clusters, we targeted a compound originating from an unusual gene cluster containing an indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). With this approach, we isolate and characterize R and S forms of the new molecule terreazepine, which contains a novel chemical scaffold resulting from cyclization of the IDO-supplied kynurenine. The discovery of terreazepine illustrates that FAC-based approaches targeting unusual biosynthetic machinery provide a promising avenue forward for targeted discovery of novel scaffolds and their biosynthetic enzymes, and it also represents another example of a biosynthetic gene cluster "repurposing" a primary metabolic enzyme to diversify its secondary metabolite arsenal.IMPORTANCE Here, we provide evidence that Aspergillus terreus encodes a biosynthetic gene cluster containing a repurposed indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) dedicated to secondary metabolite synthesis. The discovery of this neofunctionalized IDO not only enabled discovery of a new compound with an unusual chemical scaffold but also provided insight into the numerous strategies fungi employ for diversifying and protecting themselves against secondary metabolites. The observations in this study set the stage for further in-depth studies into the function of duplicated IDOs present in fungal biosynthetic gene clusters and presents a strategy for accessing the biosynthetic potential of gene clusters containing duplicated primary metabolic genes.

Bioprospecting Through Cloning of Whole Natural Product Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

Since the discovery of penicillin, natural products and their derivatives have been a valuable resource for drug discovery. With recent development of genome mining approaches in the post-genome era, a great number of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) have been identified and these can potentially be exploited for the discovery of novel natural products that can find application as pharmaceuticals. Since many BGCs are silent or do not express in native hosts under laboratory conditions, heterologous expression of BGCs in genetically tractable hosts becomes an attractive route to activate these BGCs to discover the corresponding products. Here, we highlight recent achievements in cloning and discovery of natural product biosynthetic pathways via intact BGC capturing, and discuss the prospects of high-throughput and multiplexed cloning of rational-designed gene clusters in the future.

α-Glucosidase and Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B Inhibitors from Malbranchea circinata

During a search for new α-glucosidase and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitors from fungal sources, eight new secondary metabolites, including two anthranilic acid-derived peptides (1 and 2), four glycosylated anthraquinones (3-6), 4-isoprenylravenelin (7), and a dimer of 5,8-dihydroxy-4-methoxy-α-tetralone (8), along with four known compounds (9-12), were isolated from solid rice-based cultures of Malbranchea circinata. The structural elucidation of these metabolites was performed using 1D and 2D NMR techniques and DFT-calculated chemical shifts. Compounds 1-3, 9, and 10 showed inhibitory activity to yeast α-glucosidase (αGHY), with IC₅₀ values ranging from 57.4 to 261.3 μM (IC₅₀ acarbose = 585.8 μM). The effect of 10 (10.0 mg/kg) was corroborated in vivo using a sucrose tolerance test in normoglucemic mice. The most active compounds against PTP-1B were 8-10, with IC₅₀ values from 10.9 to 15.3 μM (IC₅₀ ursolic acid = 27.8 μM). Docking analysis of the active compounds into the crystal structures of αGHY and PTP-1B predicted that all compounds bind to the catalytic domains of the enzymes. Together, these results showed that M. circinata is a potential source of antidiabetic drug leads.

A facile and efficient multicomponent ultrasound-assisted "on water" synthesis of benzodiazepine ring

A facile and efficient multicomponent synthesis of benzodiazepine ring in water under ultrasound irradiation is reported first time. The current procedure escapes traditional chromatography and purification process and provided the product in excellent yields of 95% as compared to conventional methods. The approach was also validated on gram-scale synthesis.

Advanced strategy for metabolite exploration in filamentous fungi

Filamentous fungi comprise an abundance of gene clusters that encode high-value metabolites, whereas affluent gene clusters remain silent during laboratory conditions. Complex cellular metabolism further limits these metabolite yields. Therefore, diverse strategies such as genetic engineering and chemical mutagenesis have been developed to activate these cryptic pathways and improve metabolite productivity. However, lower efficiencies of gene modifications and screen tools delayed the above processes. To address the above issues, this review describes an alternative design-construction evaluation optimization (DCEO) approach. The DCEO tool provides theoretical and practical principles to identify potential pathways, modify endogenous pathways, integrate exogenous pathways, and exploit novel pathways for their diverse metabolites and desirable productivities. This DCEO method also offers different tactics to balance the cellular metabolisms, facilitate the genetic engineering, and exploit the scalable metabolites in filamentous fungi.

Diketopiperazine Formation in Fungi Requires Dedicated Cyclization and Thiolation Domains

Cyclization of linear dipeptidyl precursors derived from nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) into 2,5-diketopiperazines (DKPs) is a crucial step in the biosynthesis of a large number of bioactive natural products. However, the mechanism of DKP formation in fungi has remained unclear, despite extensive studies of their biosyntheses. Here we show that DKP formation en route to the fungal virulence factor gliotoxin requires a seemingly extraneous couplet of condensation (C) and thiolation (T) domains in the NRPS GliP. In vivo truncation of GliP to remove the CT couplet or just the T domain abrogated production of gliotoxin and all other gli pathway metabolites. Point mutation of conserved active sites in the C and T domains diminished cyclization activity of GliP in vitro and abolished gliotoxin biosynthesis in vivo. Verified NRPSs of other fungal DKPs terminate with similar CT domain couplets, suggesting a conserved strategy for DKP biosynthesis by fungal NRPSs.

Genetic platforms for heterologous expression of microbial natural products

Covering: 2005 up to 2019Natural products are of paramount importance in human medicine. Not only are most antibacterial and anticancer drugs derived directly from or inspired by natural products, many other branches of medicine, such as immunology, neurology, and cardiology, have similarly benefited from natural product-based drugs. Typically, the genetic material required to synthesize a microbial specialized product is arranged in a multigene biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC), which codes for proteins associated with molecule construction, regulation, and transport. The ability to connect natural product compounds to BGCs and vice versa, along with ever-increasing knowledge of biosynthetic machineries, has spawned the field of genomics-guided natural product genome mining for the rational discovery of new chemical entities. One significant challenge in the field of natural product genome mining is how to rapidly link orphan biosynthetic genes to their associated chemical products. This review highlights state-of-the-art genetic platforms to identify, interrogate, and engineer BGCs from diverse microbial sources, which can be broken into three stages: (1) cloning and isolation of genomic loci, (2) heterologous expression in a host organism, and (3) genetic manipulation of cloned pathways. In the future, we envision natural product genome mining will be rapidly accelerated by de novo DNA synthesis and refactoring of whole biosynthetic pathways in combination with systematic heterologous expression methodologies.

Catalyst- and Solvent-Free Coupling of 2-Methyl Quinazolinones and Isatins: An Environmentally Benign Access of Diastereoselective Schizocommunin Analogues

An environmentally benign highly atom-economic protocol for the construction of the C-C bond has been developed under catalyst- and solvent-free conditions. This protocol involves the efficient coupling of 2-methyl quinazolinones with isatin for the highly diastereoselective access of schizocommunin derivatives in excellent yields (up to 97%). Furthermore, the preliminary cytotoxicity screening of selected schizocommunin analogues displayed promising anticancer activity against human cancer cell lines, and the cytotoxic potential of active compound 12ac was also validated by in silico molecular docking simulation studies.

Refining and expanding nonribosomal peptide synthetase function and mechanism

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are involved in the biosynthesis of numerous peptide and peptide-like natural products that have been exploited in medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology, among other fields. As a consequence, there have been considerable efforts aimed at understanding how NRPSs orchestrate the assembly of these natural products. This review highlights several recent examples that continue to expand upon the fundamental knowledge of NRPS mechanism and includes (1) the discovery of new NRPS substrates and the mechanism by which these sometimes structurally complex substrates are made, (2) the characterization of new NRPS activities and domains that function during the process of peptide assembly, and (3) the various catalytic strategies that are utilized to release the NRPS product. These findings continue to strengthen the predictive power for connecting genes to products, thereby facilitating natural product discovery and development in the Genomics Era.

Strategies for Engineering Natural Product Biosynthesis in Fungi

Fungi are a prolific source of bioactive compounds, some of which have been developed as essential medicines and life-enhancing drugs. Genome sequencing has revealed that fungi have the potential to produce considerably more natural products (NPs) than are typically observed in the laboratory. Recently, there have been significant advances in the identification, understanding, and engineering of fungal biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). This review briefly describes examples of the engineering of fungal NP biosynthesis at the global, pathway, and enzyme level using in vivo and in vitro approaches and refers to the range and scale of heterologous expression systems available, developments in combinatorial biosynthesis, progress in understanding how fungal BGCs are regulated, and the applications of these novel biosynthetic enzymes as biocatalysts.