Harnessing the chemical activation inherent to carrier protein-bound thioesters for the characterization of lipopeptide fatty acid tailoring enzymes

Machine-Learning Analysis of Streptomyces coelicolor Transcriptomes Reveals a Transcription Regulatory Network Encompassing Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

Streptomyces produces diverse secondary metabolites of biopharmaceutical importance, yet the rate of biosynthesis of these metabolites is often hampered by complex transcriptional regulation. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of transcriptional regulation in Streptomyces is key to fully harness its genetic potential. Here, independent component analysis (ICA) of 454 high-quality gene expression profiles of the model species Streptomyces coelicolor is performed, of which 249 profiles are newly generated for S. coelicolor cultivated on 20 different carbon sources and 64 engineered strains with overexpressed sigma factors. ICA of the transcriptome dataset reveals 117 independently modulated groups of genes (iModulons), which account for 81.6% of the variance in the dataset. The genes in each iModulon are involved in specific cellular responses, which are often transcriptionally controlled by specific regulators. Also, iModulons accurately predict 25 secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters encoded in the genome. This systemic analysis leads to reveal the functions of previously uncharacterized genes, putative regulons for 40 transcriptional regulators, including 30 sigma factors, and regulation of secondary metabolism via phosphate- and iron-dependent mechanisms in S. coelicolor. ICA of large transcriptomic datasets thus enlightens a new and fundamental understanding of transcriptional regulation of secondary metabolite synthesis along with interconnected metabolic processes in Streptomyces.

Convergent Synthesis of Calcium-Dependent Antibiotic CDA3a and Analogues with Improved Antibacterial Activity via Late-Stage Serine Ligation

A convergent synthesis via the late-stage serine ligation of naturally occurring calcium-dependent antibiotic CDA3a and its analogues has been developed, which allowed us to readily synthesize the analogues with the variation on the lipid tail. Some analogues were found to show 100-500-fold higher antimicrobial activity than the natural compound CDA3a against drug resistant bacteria. This study will enhance our understanding of CDA3a and provide valuable antibacterial lead candidates for further development.

Exogenous addition of alkanoic acids enhanced production of antifungal lipopeptides in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Pc3

The bacterium, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Pc3, was previously isolated from Antarctic seawater and has been found to show antagonistic activity against the fungus, Rhizoctonia solani ACCC 36316, which causes a severe disease known as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in rapeseed plants. Bacillus lipopeptides had been widely used as biocontrol agents for plant diseases. In this study, we isolated 11 lipopeptide compounds from B. amyloliquefaciens Pc3 culture broth via reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and used matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) to identify these as iturin A (C₁₄, C₁₅, C₁₆, C₁₇), fengycin B (C₁₄, C₁₅, C₁₆, C₁₇), and surfactin (C₁₄, C₁₅, C₁₆). We further found that the addition of exogenous alkanoic acids, including myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, palmitic acid, heptadecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid, and nonadecanoic acid, to the bacterial growth media could promote lipopeptide production and enhance the antifungal activities of crude lipopeptide extracts from B. amyloliquefaciens Pc3. In addition, the transcriptional levels of three lipopeptide synthesis genes, ituD, fenA, and srfA-A, and two fatty acid metabolism-related genes, FabI, which encodes enoyl-ACP reductase, and FadB, which encodes enoyl-CoA hydratase, were found to be upregulated in cells grown with exogenous alkanoic acids. Among the six alkanoic acids tested, those with odd carbon chain lengths had a greater effect on lipopeptide production, antifungal activity, and target gene upregulation than those with even carbon chain lengths. These results provide a practical approach for the efficient production of lipopeptides in Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Pc3.

Chemical Probes Allow Structural Insight into the Condensation Reaction of Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) synthesize a vast variety of small molecules, including antibiotics, antitumors, and immunosuppressants. The NRPS condensation (C) domain catalyzes amide bond formation, the central chemical step in nonribosomal peptide synthesis. The catalytic mechanism and substrate determinants of the reaction are under debate. We developed chemical probes to structurally study the NRPS condensation reaction. These substrate analogs become covalently tethered to a cysteine introduced near the active site, to mimic covalent substrate delivery by carrier domains. They are competent substrates in the condensation reaction and behave similarly to native substrates. Co-crystal structures show C domain-substrate interactions, and suggest that the catalytic histidine's principle role is to position the α-amino group for nucleophilic attack. Structural insight provided by these co-complexes also allowed us to alter the substrate specificity profile of the reaction with a single point mutation.

An unusual dehydratase acting on glycerate and a ketoreducatse stereoselectively reducing α-ketone in polyketide starter unit biosynthesis

Polyketide synthases (PKSs) usually employ a ketoreductase (KR) to catalyze the reduction of a β-keto group, followed by a dehydratase (DH) that drives the dehydration to form a double bond between the α- and β-carbon atoms. Herein, a DH*-KR* involved in FR901464 biosynthesis was characterized: DH* acts on glyceryl-S-acyl carrier protein (ACP) to yield ACP-linked pyruvate; subsequently KR* reduces α-ketone that yields L-lactyl-S-ACP as starter unit for polyketide biosynthesis. Genetic and biochemical evidence was found to support a similar pathway that is involved in the biosynthesis of lankacidins. These results not only identified new PKS domains acting on different substrates, but also provided additional options for engineering the PKS starter pathway or biocatalysis.

Biochemical determination of enzyme-bound metabolites: preferential accumulation of a programmed octaketide on the enediyne polyketide synthase CalE8

Despite considerable interest in the enediyne family of antitumor antibiotics, assembly of their polyketide core structures in nature remains poorly understood. Discriminating methods to access enzyme-bound intermediates are critical for elucidating unresolved polyketide and nonribosomal peptide biosynthetic pathways. Here, we describe the development of broadly applicable techniques for the mild chemical release and analysis of intermediates bound to carrier proteins (CPs), providing access to these species even in sensitive systems. These techniques were applied to CalE8, the polyketide synthase (PKS) involved in calicheamicin biosynthesis, facilitating the unambiguous identification of enzyme-bound polyketides on an enediyne PKS. Moreover, these methods enabled the preparation of fully unloaded CalE8, providing a "clean slate" for reconstituted activity and allowing us to demonstrate the preferential accumulation of a PKS-bound octaketide with evidence of programmed processing control by CalE8. This intermediate, which has the expected chain length for enediyne core construction, could previously only be indirectly inferred. These studies prove that this polyketide is an authentic product of CalE8 and may be a key precursor to the enediyne core of calicheamicin, as it is the only programmed, enzyme-bound species observed for any enediyne system to date. Our experimental advances into a generally inaccessible system illustrate the utility of these techniques for investigating CP-based biosynthetic pathways.

Crystal structures of the first condensation domain of CDA synthetase suggest conformational changes during the synthetic cycle of nonribosomal peptide synthetases

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are large modular macromolecular machines that produce small peptide molecules with wide-ranging biological activities, such as antibiotics and green chemicals. The condensation (C) domain is responsible for amide bond formation, the central chemical step in nonribosomal peptide synthesis. Here we present two crystal structures of the first condensation domain of the calcium-dependent antibiotic (CDA) synthetase (CDA-C1) from Streptomyces coelicolor, determined at resolutions 1.8Å and 2.4Å. The conformations adopted by CDA-C1 are quite similar in these two structures yet distinct from those seen in other NRPS C domain structures. HPLC-based reaction assays show that this CDA-C1 construct is catalytically active, and small-angle X-ray scattering experiments suggest that the conformation observed in these crystal structures could faithfully represent the conformation in solution. We have performed targeted molecular dynamics simulations, normal mode analyses and energy-minimized linear interpolation to investigate the conformational changes required to transition between the observed structures. We discuss the implications of these conformational changes in the synthetic cycle and of the observation that the "latch" that covers the active site is consistently formed in all studied C domains.

The structural role of the carrier protein--active controller or passive carrier

Common to all FASs, PKSs and NRPSs is a remarkable component, the acyl or peptidyl carrier protein (A/PCP). These take the form of small individual proteins in type II systems or discrete folded domains in the multi-domain type I systems and are characterized by a fold consisting of three major α-helices and between 60-100 amino acids. This protein is central to these biosynthetic systems and it must bind and transport a wide variety of functionalized ligands as well as mediate numerous protein-protein interactions, all of which contribute to efficient enzyme turnover. This review covers the structural and biochemical characterization of carrier proteins, as well as assessing their interactions with different ligands, and other synthase components. Finally, their role as an emerging tool in biotechnology is discussed.

Exploring the mechanism of lipid transfer during biosynthesis of the acidic lipopeptide antibiotic CDA

The non-ribosomally synthesized lipodepsipeptide CDA belongs to the group of acidic lipopeptide antibiotics, whose members feature a fatty acid side chain that strongly affects their antimicrobial activity. This study elucidates the N-acylation of the N-terminal serine in the CDA peptide chain. This reaction is referred to as lipoinitiation and is shown to be catalyzed by the dissected starter C domain found at the N-terminus of Cda-PSI. The recombinantly produced C domain specifically interacts with 2,3-epoxyhexanoyl-S-ACP and catalyzes the transfer of the fatty acid moiety onto the amino group of PCP-bound serine with high selectivity for both carrier protein bound substrates at the donor and acceptor site.

Extending carbon chain length of 1-butanol pathway for 1-hexanol synthesis from glucose by engineered Escherichia coli

An Escherichia coli strain was engineered to synthesize 1-hexanol from glucose by extending the coenzyme A (CoA)-dependent 1-butanol synthesis reaction sequence catalyzed by exogenous enzymes. The C4-acyl-CoA intermediates were first synthesized via acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase (AtoB), 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase (Hbd), crotonase (Crt), and trans-enoyl-CoA reductase (Ter) from various organisms. The butyryl-CoA synthesized was further extended to hexanoyl-CoA via β-ketothiolase (BktB), Hbd, Crt, and Ter. Finally, hexanoyl-CoA was reduced to yield 1-hexanol by aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenase (AdhE2). Enzyme activities for the C6 intermediates were confirmed by assays using HPLC and GC. 1-Hexanol was secreted to the fermentation medium under anaerobic conditions. Furthermore, co-expressing formate dehydrogenase (Fdh) from Candida boidinii increased the 1-hexanol titer. This demonstration of 1-hexanol production by extending the 1-butanol pathway provides the possibility to produce other medium chain length alcohols using the same strategy.

N-acylation during glidobactin biosynthesis by the tridomain nonribosomal peptide synthetase module GlbF

Glidobactins are hybrid NRPS-PKS natural products that function as irreversible proteasome inhibitors. A variety of medium chain 2(E),4(E)-diene fatty acids N-acylate the peptidolactam core and contribute significantly to the potency of proteasome inhibition. We have expressed the initiation NRPS module GlbF (C-A-T) in Escherichia coli and observe soluble active protein only on coexpression with the 8 kDa MbtH-like protein, GlbE. Following adenylation and installation of Thr as a T-domain thioester, the starter condensation domain utilizes fatty acyl-CoA donors to acylate the Thr(1) amino group and generate the fatty acyl-Thr(1)-S-pantetheinyl-GlbF intermediate to be used in subsequent chain elongation. Previously proposed to be mediated via acyl carrier protein fatty acid donors, direct utilization of fatty acyl-CoA donors for N-acylation of T-domain tethered amino acids is likely a common strategy for chain initiation in NRPS-mediated lipopeptide biosynthesis.

Active site modification of the β-ketoacyl-ACP synthase FabF3 of Streptomyces coelicolor affects the fatty acid chain length of the CDA lipopeptides

Using site directed mutagenesis we altered an active site residue (Phe107) of the enzyme encoded by fabF3 (SCO3248) in the Streptomyces coelicolor gene cluster required for biosynthesis of the calcium dependent antibiotics (CDAs), successfully generating two novel CDA derivatives comprising truncated (C4) lipid side chains and confirming that fabF3 encodes a KAS-II homologue that is involved in determining CDA fatty acid chain length.

Functional dissection of surfactin synthetase initiation module reveals insights into the mechanism of lipoinitiation

Although the N-terminally attached fatty acids are key structural elements of nonribosomally assembled lipopeptide antibiotics, little is known about the mechanism of lipid transfer during the initial step of biosynthesis. In this study, we investigated the activity of the dissected initiation module (C-A(Glu)-PCP) of surfactin synthetase SrfAA in vitro to gain further insights into the lipoinitiation reaction. The dissected condensation (C) domain catalyzes the transfer of CoA-activated 3-hydroxy fatty acid with high substrate specificity at its donor site to the peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) bound amino acid glutamate (Glu(1)). Additionally, biochemical studies on four putative acyl CoA ligases in Bacillus subtilis revealed that two of them activate 3-hydroxy fatty acids for surfactin biosynthesis in vitro and that the disruption of corresponding genes has a significant influence on surfactin production.

Adding the lipo to lipopeptides: do more with less

Surfactin is a member of the lipopeptide family of antibiotics, which includes the clinical drug daptomycin (Cubicin). The potency of these antibiotics is affected by the attached lipid chain, which is incorporated into the nonribosomally assembled peptidyl backbone via a process known as lipoinitiation. Kraas et al. (2010) have provided valuable insights into the lipoinitiation mechanism, which will be useful for future biosynthetic modifications of lipopeptide antibiotics.

Surveys of non-ribosomal peptide and polyketide assembly lines in fungi and prospects for their analysis in vitro and in vivo

With many bioactive non-ribosomal peptides and polyketides produced in fungi, studies of their biosyntheses are an active area of research. Practical limitations of working with mega-dalton synthetases including cell lysis and protein extraction to recombinant gene and pathway expression has slowed understanding of many secondary metabolic processes relative to bacterial counterparts. Recent advances in accessing fungal biosynthetic machinery are beginning to change this. Here we describe the successes of some studies of thiotemplate biosynthesis in fungal systems, along with very recent advances in chemical tagging and mass spectrometric strategies to selectively study biosynthetic conveyer belts in isolation, and within a few years, in endogenous fungal proteomes.

Stereospecific synthesis of threo- and erythro-beta-hydroxyglutamic acid during kutzneride biosynthesis

The antifungal and antimicrobial kutznerides, hexadepsipeptides composed of one alpha-hydroxy acid and five nonproteinogenic amino acids, are remarkable examples of the structural diversity found in nonribosomally produced natural products. They contain D-3-hydroxyglutamic acid, which is found in the threo and erythro isomers in mature kutznerides. In this study, two putative nonheme iron oxygenase enzymes, KtzO and KtzP, were recombinantly expressed, characterized biochemically in vitro, and found to stereospecifically hydroxylate the beta-position of glutamic acid. KtzO generates threo-L-hydroxyglutamic acid and KtzP catalyzes the formation of the erythro-isomer bound to the peptidyl carrier protein of the third module of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase KtzH. This module has a truncated adenylation domain and is unable to activate and incorporate glutamic acid. The lack of a functional adenylation domain in the third KtzH module is compensated in trans by the stand-alone adenylation domain KtzN, which activates and transfers glutamic acid onto the carrier of KtzH in the presence of the truncated adenylation domain and either KtzO or KtzP. A method that employs nonhydrolyzable coenzyme A analogs was developed and used to determine the kinetic parameters for KtzO- and KtzP-catalyzed hydroxylation of glutamic acid bound to the carrier protein. A detailed mechanism for the in trans compensation of the truncated adenylation domain and the stereospecific hydroxyglutamic acid generation and incorporation is presented. These insights may guide the use of KtzO/KtzP and KtzN or other in trans modification/restoration tools in biocombinatorial engineering approaches.

Structural insights into nonribosomal peptide enzymatic assembly lines

Nonribosomal peptides have a variety of medicinal activities including activity as antibiotics, antitumor drugs, immunosuppressives, and toxins. Their biosynthesis on multimodular assembly lines as a series of covalently tethered thioesters, in turn covalently attached on pantetheinyl arms on carrier protein way stations, reflects similar chemical logic and protein machinery to fatty acid and polyketide biosynthesis. While structural information on excised or isolated catalytic adenylation (A), condensation (C), peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) and thioesterase (TE) domains had been gathered over the past decade, little was known about how the NRPS catalytic and carrier domains interact with each other both within and across elongation or termination modules. This Highlight reviews recent breakthrough achievements in both X-ray and NMR spectroscopic studies that illuminate the architecture of NRPS PCP domains, PCP-containing didomain-fragments and of a full termination module (C-A-PCP-TE).

The structural diversity of acidic lipopeptide antibiotics

Acidic lipopeptide antibiotics are a new class of potent antibiotics, which includes daptomycin, A54145, calcium-dependent antibiotics (CDAs), friulimicins/amphomycins, laspartomycin/glycinocins and others. The importance of this novel class is exemplified by the success story of the clinically approved daptomycin, which is used for the treatment of skin infections and bacteremia caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. The potency of acidic lipopeptides is inherent in their chemical structure. The nonribosomally synthesized peptide cores consist of eleven to 13 amino acids, which are rigidified by the formation of a ten-membered ring. An N-terminal fatty acid, which facilitates insertion into the lipid bilayer of bacterial membranes, completes the structure. All these antibiotics contain multiple nonproteinogenic amino acids as well as different lipid tails; this yields remarkable structural diversity. This review summarizes the observed structural variety through a detailed description of the composition of the acidic lipopeptides. Furthermore, engineering approaches towards novel lipopeptides are presented. Recent discoveries in the field of tailoring enzymes, which enable structural plurality mainly by amino and fatty acid precursor biosynthesis, are highlighted.

Activation of the promoter of the fengycin synthetase operon by the UP element

Bacillus subtilis F29-3 produces an antifungal peptidic antibiotic that is synthesized nonribosomally by fengycin synthetases. Our previous work established that the promoter of the fengycin synthetase operon is located 86 nucleotides upstream of the translational initiation codon of fenC. This investigation involved transcriptional fusions with a DNA fragment that contains the region between positions -105 and +80 and determined that deleting the region between positions -55 and -42 reduces the promoter activity by 64.5%. Transcriptional fusions in the B. subtilis DB2 chromosome also indicated that mutating the sequence markedly reduces the promoter activity. An in vitro transcription analysis confirmed that the transcription is inefficient when the sequence in this region is mutated. Electrophoretic mobility shift and footprinting analyses demonstrated that the C-terminal domain of the RNA polymerase alpha subunit binds to the region between positions -55 and -39. These results indicated that the sequence is an UP element. Finally, this UP element is critical for the production of fengycin, since mutating the UP sequence in the chromosome of B. subtilis F29-3 reduces the transcription of the fen operon by 85% and prevents the cells from producing enough fengycin to suppress the germination of Paecilomyces variotii spores on agar plates.

Biosynthesis and biosynthetic engineering of calcium-dependent lipopeptide antibiotics

Biosynthetic engineering involves the reprogramming of genes that are involved in the biosynthesis of natural products to generate new "non-natural" products, which might otherwise not exist in nature. Potentially this approach can be used to provide large numbers of secondary metabolites variants, with altered biological activities, many of which are too complex for effective total synthesis. Recently we have been investigating the biosynthesis of the calcium-dependent antibiotics (CDAs) which are members of the therapeutically relevant class of acidic lipopeptide antibiotics. CDAs are assembled by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes. These large modular assembly-line enzymes process intermediates that are covalently tethered to peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) domain bonds bonds, which makes them particularly amenable to reprogramming. The CDA producer, Streptomyces coelicolor, is also a genetically tractable model organism which makes CDA an ideal template for biosynthetic engineering. To this end we have elucidated many of the key steps in CDA biosynthesis and utilized this information to develop methods that have enabled the engineered biosynthesis of wide range of CDA-type lipopeptides.

Accessing natural product biosynthetic processes by mass spectrometry

Two important classes of natural products are made by nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) and polyketide synthases (PKSs). With most biosynthetic intermediates covalently tethered during biogenesis, protein mass spectrometry (MS) has proven invaluable for their interrogation. New mass spectrometric assay formats (such as selective cofactor ejection and proteomics style LC-MS) are showcased here in the context of functional insights into new breeds of NRPS/PKS enzymes, including the first characterization of an 'iterative' PKS, the biosynthesis of the enediyne antitumor antibiotics, the study of a new strategy for PKS initiation via a GNAT-like mechanism, and the analysis of branching strategies in the so-called 'AT-less' NRPS/PKS hybrid systems. The future of MS analysis of NRPS and PKS biosynthetic pathways lies in adoption and development of methods that continue bridging enzymology with proteomics as both fields continue their post-genomic acceleration.

Chapter 14. Biosynthesis of nonribosomal peptide precursors

Nonribosomal peptides are natural products typically of bacterial and fungal origin. These highly complex molecules display a broad spectrum of biological activities, and have been exploited for the development of immunosuppressant, antibiotic, anticancer, and other therapeutic agents. The nonribosomal peptides are assembled by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes comprising repeating modules that are responsible for the sequential selection, activation, and condensation of precursor amino acids. In addition to this, fatty acids, alpha-keto acids and alpha-hydroxy acids, as well as polyketide derived units, can also be utilized by NRPS assembly lines. Final tailoring-steps, including glycosylation and prenylation, serve to further decorate the nonribosomal peptides produced. The wide range of experimental methods that are employed in the elucidation of nonribosomal peptide precursor biosynthesis will be discussed, with particularly emphasis on genomics based approaches which have become wide spread over the last 5 years.