Engineering the biosynthesis of fungal nonribosomal peptides

Advances, opportunities, and challenges in methods for interrogating the structure activity relationships of natural products

Time span in literature: 1985-early 2024Natural products play a key role in drug discovery, both as a direct source of drugs and as a starting point for the development of synthetic compounds. Most natural products are not suitable to be used as drugs without further modification due to insufficient activity or poor pharmacokinetic properties. Choosing what modifications to make requires an understanding of the compound's structure-activity relationships. Use of structure-activity relationships is commonplace and essential in medicinal chemistry campaigns applied to human-designed synthetic compounds. Structure-activity relationships have also been used to improve the properties of natural products, but several challenges still limit these efforts. Here, we review methods for studying the structure-activity relationships of natural products and their limitations. Specifically, we will discuss how synthesis, including total synthesis, late-stage derivatization, chemoenzymatic synthetic pathways, and engineering and genome mining of biosynthetic pathways can be used to produce natural product analogs and discuss the challenges of each of these approaches. Finally, we will discuss computational methods including machine learning methods for analyzing the relationship between biosynthetic genes and product activity, computer aided drug design techniques, and interpretable artificial intelligence approaches towards elucidating structure-activity relationships from models trained to predict bioactivity from chemical structure. Our focus will be on these latter topics as their applications for natural products have not been extensively reviewed. We suggest that these methods are all complementary to each other, and that only collaborative efforts using a combination of these techniques will result in a full understanding of the structure-activity relationships of natural products.

Characterization of a methyltransferase for iterative N-methylation at the leucinostatin termini in Purpureocillium lilacinum

N-methyltransferase (NMT)-catalyzed methylation at the termini of nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) has rarely been reported. Here, we discover a fungal NMT LcsG for the iterative terminal N-methylation of a family of NRPs, leucinostatins. Gene deletion results suggest that LcsG is essential for leucinostatins methylation. Results from in vitro assays and HRESI-MS-MS analysis reveal the methylation sites as NH2, NHCH3 and N(CH3)2 in the C-terminus of various leucinostatins. LcsG catalysis yields new lipopeptides, some of which demonstrate effective antibiotic properties against the human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans and the plant pathogen Phytophthora infestans. Multiple sequence alignments and site-directed mutagenesis of LcsG indicate the presence of a highly conserved SAM-binding pocket, along with two possible active site residues (D368 and D395). Molecular dynamics simulations show that the targeted N can dock between these two residues. Thus, this study suggests a method for increasing the variety of natural bioactivity of NPRs and a possible catalytic mechanism underlying the N-methylation of NRPs.

Combinatorial biosynthesis for the engineering of novel fungal natural products

Natural products are small molecules synthesized by fungi, bacteria and plants, which historically have had a profound effect on human health and quality of life. These natural products have evolved over millions of years resulting in specific biological functions that may be of interest for pharmaceutical, agricultural, or nutraceutical use. Often natural products need to be structurally modified to make them suitable for specific applications. Combinatorial biosynthesis is a method to alter the composition of enzymes needed to synthesize a specific natural product resulting in structurally diversified molecules. In this review we discuss different approaches for combinatorial biosynthesis of natural products via engineering fungal enzymes and biosynthetic pathways. We highlight the biosynthetic knowledge gained from these studies and provide examples of new-to-nature bioactive molecules, including molecules synthesized using combinations of fungal and non-fungal enzymes.

Isolation, Characterization, and Bioherbicidal Potential of the 16-Residue Peptaibols from Emericellopsis sp. XJ1056

Eco-friendly bioherbicides are urgently needed for managing the problematic weed Amaranthus retroflexus. A mass spectrometry- and bioassay-guided screening approach was employed to identify phytotoxic secondary metabolites from fungi for the development of such bioherbicides. This effort led to the discovery of six phytotoxic 16-residue peptaibols, including five new compounds (2-6) and a known congener (1), from Emericellopsis sp. XJ1056. Their planar structures were elucidated through the analysis of tandem mass and NMR spectroscopic data. The absolute configurations of the chiral amino acids were determined by advanced Marfey's method and chiral-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. Bioinformatic analysis and targeted gene disruption identified the biosynthetic gene cluster for these peptaibols. Compounds 1 and 2 significantly inhibited the radicle growth of A. retroflexus seedlings, and 1 demonstrated potent postemergence herbicidal activity against A. retroflexus while exhibiting minimal toxicity to Sorghum bicolor. Structure-activity relationship analysis underscored the importance of trans-4-hydroxy-l-prolines at both the 10th and 13th positions for the herbicidal activities of these peptaibols.

Discovery of unguisin J, a new cyclic peptide from Aspergillus heteromorphus CBS 117.55, and phylogeny-based bioinformatic analysis of UngA NRPS domains

Several under-explored Aspergillus sp. produce intriguing heptapeptides containing a γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) residue with as yet unknown biological functions. In this study, a new GABA-containing heptapeptide - unguisin J (1) - along with known unguisin B (2) were isolated from a solid culture of Aspergillus heteromorphus CBS 117.55. The structure of compound 1 was elucidated by extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analysis including HSQC, HMBC, COSY, and 2D NOESY as well as HRESIMS. The stereochemistry of 1 and 2 was determined by Marfey's method. A biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) encoding unguisins B and J was compared to characterized BGCs in other Aspergillus sp. Since the unguisin family of heptapetides incorporate different amino acid residues at different positions of the peptide, the A and C domains of the UngA NRPS were analyzed in an attempt to understand the lack of substrate specificity observed.

Insight into advances for the biosynthetic progress of fermented echinocandins of antifungals

Invasive fungal infections have increased remarkably, which have become unprecedented concern to human health. However, the effectiveness of current antifungal drugs is limited due to drug resistance and toxic side-effects. It is urgently required to establish the effective biosynthetic strategy for developing novel and safe antifungal molecules economically. Echinocandins become a promising option as a mainstay family of antifungals, due to specifically targeting the fungal specific cell wall. To date, three kinds of echinocandins for caspofungin, anidulafungin, and micafungin, which derived from pneumocandin B0 , echinocandin B, and FR901379, are commercially available in clinic and have shown potential in managing invasive fungal infections in a cost-effective manner. However, current echinocandins-derived precursors all are produced by environmental fungal isolates with long fermentation cycle and low yields, which challenge the production efficacy of these precursors in industry. Therefore, understanding their biosynthetic machinery is of great importance for improving antifungal titres and creating new echinocandins-derived products. With the development of genome-wide sequencing and establishment of gene-editing technology, there are a growing number of reports on echinocandins-derived products and their biosynthetic gene clusters. This review briefly summarizes the discovery and development history of echinocandins, compares their structural characteristics and biosynthetic processes, and sums up existed strategies for improving their production. Moreover, the genomic analysis of related biosynthetic gene clusters of echinocandins is discussed, highlighting the similarities and differences among the clusters. Last, the biosynthetic processes of echinocandins are compared, focusing on the activation and attachment of side-chains and the formation of the hexapeptide core. This review aims to provide insights into the development and production of new echinocandin drugs by modifying the structure of echinocandin-derived precursors and/or optimizing the fermentation processes; and achieve a new microbial chassis for efficient production of echinocandins in heterologous hosts.

Mining natural products for advanced biofuels and sustainable bioproducts

Recently, there has been growing interest in the sustainable production of biofuels and bioproducts derived from renewable sources. Natural products, the largest and more structurally diverse group of metabolites, hold significant promise as sources for such bio-based products. However, there are two primary challenges in harnessing natural products' potential: precise mining of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) that can be used as scaffolds or bioparts and their functional expression for biofuel and bioproduct manufacture. In this review, we explore recent advances in the development of bioinformatic tools for BGC mining and the manipulation of various hosts for natural product-based biofuels and bioproducts manufacture. Moreover, we discuss potential strategies for expanding the chemical diversity of biofuels and bioproducts and enhancing their overall yield.

In vitro characterization of nonribosomal peptide synthetase-dependent O-(2-hydrazineylideneacetyl)serine synthesis indicates a stepwise oxidation strategy to generate the α-diazo ester moiety of azaserine

Azaserine, a natural product containing a diazo group, exhibits anticancer activity. In this study, we investigated the biosynthetic pathway to azaserine. The putative azaserine biosynthetic gene (azs) cluster, which contains 21 genes, including those responsible for hydrazinoacetic acid (HAA) synthesis, was discovered using bioinformatics analysis of the Streptomyces fragilis genome. Azaserine was produced by the heterologous expression of the azs cluster in Streptomyces albus. In vitro enzyme assays using recombinant Azs proteins revealed the azaserine biosynthetic pathway as follows. AzsSPTF and carrier protein (CP) AzsQ are used to synthesize the 2-hydrazineylideneacetyl (HDA) moiety attached to AzsQ from HAA. AzsD transfers the HDA moiety to the C-terminal CP domain of AzsN. The heterocyclization (Cy) domain of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase AzsO synthesizes O-(2-hydrazineylideneacetyl)serine (HDA-Ser) attached to its CP domain from l-serine and HDA moiety-attached AzsN. The thioesterase AzsB hydrolyzes it to yield HDA-Ser, which appears to be converted to azaserine by oxidation. Bioinformatics analysis of the Cy domain of AzsO showed that it has a conserved DxxxxD motif; however, two conserved amino acid residues (Thr and Asp) important for heterocyclization are substituted for Asn. Site-directed mutagenesis of two Asp residues in the DxxxxD motif (D193 and D198) and two substituted Asn residues (N414 and N447) indicated that these four residues are important for ester bond synthesis. These results showed that the diazo ester of azasrine is synthesized by the stepwise oxidation of the HAA moiety and provided another strategy to biosynthesize the diazo group.

Knowledge-guided data mining on the standardized architecture of NRPS: Subtypes, novel motifs, and sequence entanglements

Non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) is a diverse family of biosynthetic enzymes for the assembly of bioactive peptides. Despite advances in microbial sequencing, the lack of a consistent standard for annotating NRPS domains and modules has made data-driven discoveries challenging. To address this, we introduced a standardized architecture for NRPS, by using known conserved motifs to partition typical domains. This motif-and-intermotif standardization allowed for systematic evaluations of sequence properties from a large number of NRPS pathways, resulting in the most comprehensive cross-kingdom C domain subtype classifications to date, as well as the discovery and experimental validation of novel conserved motifs with functional significance. Furthermore, our coevolution analysis revealed important barriers associated with re-engineering NRPSs and uncovered the entanglement between phylogeny and substrate specificity in NRPS sequences. Our findings provide a comprehensive and statistically insightful analysis of NRPS sequences, opening avenues for future data-driven discoveries.

Mass Spectrometry-Guided Discovery of Multi-N-Methylated Cyclodecapeptides Auyuittuqamides E-H from Sesquicillium sp. QL0466

Mass spectrometry-based dereplication and prioritization led to the discovery of four multi-N-methylated cyclodecapeptides, auyuittuqamides E-H (1-4), from a soil-derived Sesquicillium sp. The planar structures of these compounds were elucidated based on analysis of HRESIMS and NMR data. Absolute configurations of the chiral amino acid residues were assigned by a combination of the advanced Marfey's method, chiral-phase LC-MS analysis, and J-based configuration analysis, revealing that 1-4 contain both d- and l-isomers of N-methylleucine (MeLeu). Differentiation of d- and l-MeLeu in the sequence was achieved by advanced Marfey's analysis of the diagnostic peptide fragments generated from partial hydrolysis of 1. Bioinformatic analysis identified a putative biosynthetic gene cluster (auy) for auyuittuqamides E-H, and a plausible biosynthetic pathway was proposed. These newly identified fungal cyclodecapeptides (1-4) displayed in vitro growth inhibitory activity against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium with MIC values of 8 μg/mL.

Stereoselective synthesis of backbone extended π-conjugated amino esters

Utilization of the Wittig reaction to synthesize conjugative multiple double bonds is rare. We examined the utility of the Wittig reaction to construct conjugative two and three carbon-carbon double bonds on the N-protected amino acid backbone. The ethyl esters of N-Boc amino acids with multiple carbon-carbon double bonds in the backbone were isolated in excellent yields with exceptional E-selectivity of the double bonds. The allylic alcohols of α,β-unsaturated γ-amino esters were selectively synthesized from the DIBAL-H and BF₃·OEt₂. The allylic alcohols were transformed into aldehydes using IBX oxidation. Using this protocol, we synthesized ethyl esters of N-Boc-(E,E)-α,β,γ,δ-unsaturated ε-amino acids with various side-chain functionalities and ethyl esters of N-Boc-(E,E,E)-α,β,γ,δ,ε,ζ-unsaturated η-amino acids with excellent yields. We speculated the exceptional E-selectivity is probably due to the stabilization of the planar transition state of the Wittig reaction with the double bond p-orbitals. No racemization was observed in the synthesis of amino acids. The reported process may serve as an excellent route to synthesize multiple conjugative carbon-carbon double bonds.

Biosynthetic Characterization, Heterologous Production, and Genomics-Guided Discovery of GABA-Containing Fungal Heptapeptides

The biosynthetic gene cluster of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-containing fungal cyclic heptapeptides unguisins A (1) and B (2) was identified in the fungus Aspergillus violaceofuscus CBS 115571. In vitro enzymatic reactions and gene deletion experiments revealed that the unguisin pathway involves the alanine racemase UngC to provide d-alanine, which is then accepted by the first adenylation domain of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) UngA. Intriguingly, the hydrolase UngD was found to transform unguisins into previously undescribed linear peptides. Subsequently, heterologous production of these peptides in Aspergillus oryzae was achieved, in which we established a methodology to readily introduce a large NRPS gene into the fungal host. Finally, genome mining revealed new unguisin congeners, each containing a (2R,3R)-β-methylphenylalanine residue.

Characterization and catalytic investigation of fungal single-module nonribosomal peptide synthetase in terpene-amino acid meroterpenoid biosynthesis

Hybrid natural products are compounds that originate from diverse biosynthetic pathways and undergo a conjugation process, which enables them to expand their chemical diversity and biological functionality. Terpene-amino acid meroterpenoids have garnered increasing attention in recent years, driven by the discovery of noteworthy examples such as the anthelmintic CJ-12662, the insecticidal paeciloxazine, and aculene A (1). In the biosynthesis of terpene-amino acid natural products, single-module nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) have been identified to be involved in the esterification step, catalyzing the fusion of modified terpene and amino acid components. Despite prior investigations into these NRPSs through gene deletion or in vivo experiments, the enzymatic basis and mechanistic insights underlying this family of single-module NRPSs remain unclear. In this study, we performed biochemical characterization of AneB by in vitro characterization, molecular docking, and site-directed mutagenesis. The enzyme reaction analyses, performed with L-proline and daucane/nordaucane sesquiterpene substrates, revealed that AneB specifically esterifies the C10-OH of aculenes with L-proline. Notably, in contrast to ThmA in CJ-12662 biosynthesis, which exclusively recognizes oxygenated amorpha-4,11-diene sesquiterpenes for L-tryptophan transfer, AneB demonstrates broad substrate selectivity, including oxygenated amorpha-4,11-diene and 2-phenylethanol, resulting in the production of diverse unnatural prolyl compounds. Furthermore, site-directed mutagenesis experiments indicated the involvement of H794 and D798 in the esterification catalyzed by AneB. Lastly, domain swapping between AneB and ThmA unveiled that the A‒T domains of ThmA can be effectively harnessed by the C domain of AneB for L-tryptophan transfer, thus highlighting the potential of the C domain of AneB for generating various terpene-amino acid meroterpenoid derivatives.

ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY

The enzymatic basis and mechanistic insights into AneB, a single-module NRPS, highlight its capacity to generate various terpene-amino acid meroterpenoid derivatives.

ClusterCAD 2.0: an updated computational platform for chimeric type I polyketide synthase and nonribosomal peptide synthetase design

Megasynthase enzymes such as type I modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) and nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) play a central role in microbial chemical warfare because they can evolve rapidly by shuffling parts (catalytic domains) to produce novel chemicals. If we can understand the design rules to reshuffle these parts, PKSs and NRPSs will provide a systematic and modular way to synthesize millions of molecules including pharmaceuticals, biomaterials, and biofuels. However, PKS and NRPS engineering remains difficult due to a limited understanding of the determinants of PKS and NRPS fold and function. We developed ClusterCAD to streamline and simplify the process of designing and testing engineered PKS variants. Here, we present the highly improved ClusterCAD 2.0 release, available at https://clustercad.jbei.org. ClusterCAD 2.0 boasts support for PKS-NRPS hybrid and NRPS clusters in addition to PKS clusters; a vastly enlarged database of curated PKS, PKS-NRPS hybrid, and NRPS clusters; a diverse set of chemical 'starters' and loading modules; the new Domain Architecture Cluster Search Tool; and an offline Jupyter Notebook workspace, among other improvements. Together these features massively expand the chemical space that can be accessed by enzymes engineered with ClusterCAD.

Overview of Bioactive Fungal Secondary Metabolites: Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Compounds

Microorganisms are known as important sources of natural compounds that have been studied and applied for different purposes in distinct areas. Specifically, in the pharmaceutical area, fungi have been explored mainly as sources of antibiotics, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, enzyme inhibitors, hypercholesteremic, antineoplastic/antitumor, immunomodulators, and immunosuppressants agents. However, historically, the high demand for new antimicrobial and antitumor agents has not been sufficiently attended by the drug discovery process, highlighting the relevance of intensifying studies to reach sustainable employment of the huge world biodiversity, including the microorganisms. Therefore, this review describes the main approaches and tools applied in the search for bioactive secondary metabolites, as well as presents several examples of compounds produced by different fungi species with proven pharmacological effects and additional examples of fungal cytotoxic and antimicrobial molecules. The review does not cover all fungal secondary metabolites already described; however, it presents some reports that can be useful at any phase of the drug discovery process, mainly for pharmaceutical applications.