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Chekan JR, Mydy LS, Pasquale MA, Kersten RD. Plant peptides - redefining an area of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides. Nat Prod Rep 2024; 41:1020-1059. [PMID: 38411572 PMCID: PMC11253845 DOI: 10.1039/d3np00042g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Covering 1965 to February 2024Plants are prolific peptide chemists and are known to make thousands of different peptidic molecules. These peptides vary dramatically in their size, chemistry, and bioactivity. Despite their differences, all plant peptides to date are biosynthesized as ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Decades of research in plant RiPP biosynthesis have extended the definition and scope of RiPPs from microbial sources, establishing paradigms and discovering new families of biosynthetic enzymes. The discovery and elucidation of plant peptide pathways is challenging due to repurposing and evolution of housekeeping genes as both precursor peptides and biosynthetic enzymes and due to the low rates of gene clustering in plants. In this review, we highlight the chemistry, biosynthesis, and function of the known RiPP classes from plants and recommend a nomenclature for the recent addition of BURP-domain-derived RiPPs termed burpitides. Burpitides are an emerging family of cyclic plant RiPPs characterized by macrocyclic crosslinks between tyrosine or tryptophan side chains and other amino acid side chains or their peptide backbone that are formed by copper-dependent BURP-domain-containing proteins termed burpitide cyclases. Finally, we review the discovery of plant RiPPs through bioactivity-guided, structure-guided, and gene-guided approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan R Chekan
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
| | - Lisa S Mydy
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
| | - Michael A Pasquale
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
| | - Roland D Kersten
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
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The flax genome reveals orbitide diversity. BMC Genomics 2022; 23:534. [PMID: 35870878 PMCID: PMC9308333 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-022-08735-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Ribosomally-synthesized cyclic peptides are widely found in plants and exhibit useful bioactivities for humans. The identification of cyclic peptide sequences and their precursor proteins is facilitated by the growing number of sequenced genomes. While previous research largely focused on the chemical diversity of these peptides across various species, there is little attention to a broader range of potential peptides that are not chemically identified. Results A pioneering study was initiated to explore the genetic diversity of linusorbs, a group of cyclic peptides uniquely occurring in cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum). Phylogenetic analysis clustered the 5 known linusorb precursor proteins into two clades and one singleton. Preliminary tBLASTn search of the published flax genome using the whole protein sequence as query could only retrieve its homologues within the same clade. This limitation was overcome using a profile-based mining strategy. After genome reannotation, a hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based approach identified 58 repeats homologous to the linusorb-embedded repeats in 8 novel proteins, implying that they share common ancestry with the linusorb-embedded repeats. Subsequently, we developed a customized profile composed of a random linusorb-like domain (LLD) flanked by 5 conserved sites and used it for string search of the proteome, which extracted 281 LLD-containing repeats (LLDRs) in 25 proteins. Comparative analysis of different repeat categories suggested that the 5 conserved flanking sites among the non-homologous repeats have undergone convergent evolution driven by functional selection. Conclusions The profile-based mining approach is suitable for analyzing repetitive sequences. The 25 LLDR proteins identified herein represent the potential diversity of cyclic peptides within the flax genome and lay a foundation for further studies on the functions and evolution of these protein tandem repeats. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-08735-x.
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Thilmony R, Dasgupta K, Shao M, Harris D, Hartman J, Harden LA, Chan R, Thomson JG. Tissue-specific expression of Ruby in Mexican lime ( C. aurantifolia) confers anthocyanin accumulation in fruit. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:945738. [PMID: 36003820 PMCID: PMC9393592 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.945738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Tissue specific promoters are important tools for the precise genetic engineering of crop plants. Four fruit-preferential promoters were examined for their ability to confer a novel fruit trait in transgenic Mexican lime (Citrus aurantifolia). The Ruby transcription factor activates fruit anthocyanin accumulation within Moro blood orange and has been shown to function in activating anthocyanin accumulation in heterologous plant species. Although the CitVO1, CitUNK, SlE8, and PamMybA promoters were previously shown to confer strong fruit-preferential expression in transgenic tomato, they exhibited no detectable expression in transgenic Mexican lime trees. In contrast, the CitWax promoter exhibited high fruit-preferential expression of Ruby, conferring strong anthocyanin accumulation within the fruit juice sac tissue and moderate activity in floral/reproductive tissues. In some of the transgenic trees with high levels of flower and fruit anthocyanin accumulation, juvenile leaves also exhibited purple coloration, but the color disappeared as the leaves matured. We show that the CitWax promoter enables the expression of Ruby to produce anthocyanin colored fruit desired by consumers. The production of this antioxidant metabolite increases the fruits nutritional value and may provide added health benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger Thilmony
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
| | - Kasturi Dasgupta
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
- Citrus Research Board, Visalia, CA, United States
| | - Min Shao
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
- Citrus Research Board, Visalia, CA, United States
| | - Daren Harris
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
| | - Jake Hartman
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
| | - Leslie A. Harden
- Produce Safety and Microbiology Research, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
| | - Ron Chan
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
| | - James G. Thomson
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Albany, CA, United States
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Zhang CH, Shao XX, Wang XB, Shou LL, Liu YL, Xu ZG, Guo ZY. Development of a general bioluminescent activity assay for peptide ligases. FEBS J 2022; 289:5241-5258. [PMID: 35239242 DOI: 10.1111/febs.16416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, some peptide ligases have been identified, such as bacterial sortases and certain plant asparaginyl or prolyl endopeptidases. Peptide ligases have wide applications in protein labelling and cyclic peptide synthesis. To characterize various known peptide ligases or identify new ones, we propose a general bioluminescent activity assay via the genetic fusion of a recognition motif of peptide ligase(s) to the C-terminus of an inactive large NanoLuc fragment (LgBiT) and the chemical introduction of a nucleophilic motif preferred by the peptide ligase(s) to the N-terminus of the low-affinity SmBiT complementation tag. After the inactive ligation version LgBiT protein was ligated with the low-affinity ligation version SmBiT tag by the expected peptide ligase(s), its luciferase activity would be restored and could be quantified sensitively according to the measured bioluminescence. In the present study, we first validated the bioluminescent activity assay using bacterial sortase A and plant-derived butelase-1. Subsequently, we screened novel peptide ligases from crude extracts of selected plants using two LgBiT-SmBiT ligation pairs. Among 80 common higher plants, we identified that five of them likely express asparaginyl endopeptidase-type peptide ligase and four of them likely express prolyl endopeptidase-type peptide ligase, suggesting that peptide ligases are not so rare in higher plants and more of them await discovery. The present bioluminescent activity assay is ultrasensitive, convenient for use, and resistant to protease interference, and thus would have wide applications for characterizing known peptide ligases or screening new ones from various sources in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cong-Hui Zhang
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiao-Xia Shao
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xin-Bo Wang
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Li-Li Shou
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ya-Li Liu
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zeng-Guang Xu
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhan-Yun Guo
- Research Center for Translational Medicine at East Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
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Fisher MF, Payne CD, Chetty T, Crayn D, Berkowitz O, Whelan J, Rosengren KJ, Mylne JS. The genetic origin of evolidine, the first cyclopeptide discovered in plants, and related orbitides. J Biol Chem 2020; 295:14510-14521. [PMID: 32817170 PMCID: PMC7573267 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.ra120.014781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Revised: 08/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Cyclic peptides are reported to have antibacterial, antifungal, and other bioactivities. Orbitides are a class of cyclic peptides that are small, head-to-tail cyclized, composed of proteinogenic amino acids and lack disulfide bonds; they are also known in several genera of the plant family Rutaceae. Melicope xanthoxyloides is the Australian rain forest tree of the Rutaceae family in which evolidine, the first plant cyclic peptide, was discovered. Evolidine (cyclo-SFLPVNL) has subsequently been all but forgotten in the academic literature, so to redress this we used tandem MS and de novo transcriptomics to rediscover evolidine and decipher its biosynthetic origin from a short precursor just 48 residues in length. We also identified another six M. xanthoxyloides orbitides using the same techniques. These peptides have atypically diverse C termini consisting of residues not recognized by either of the known proteases plants use to macrocyclize peptides, suggesting new cyclizing enzymes await discovery. We examined the structure of two of the novel orbitides by NMR, finding one had a definable structure, whereas the other did not. Mining RNA-seq and whole genome sequencing data from other species of the Rutaceae family revealed that a large and diverse family of peptides is encoded by similar sequences across the family and demonstrates how powerful de novo transcriptomics can be at accelerating the discovery of new peptide families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark F Fisher
- The University of Western Australia, School of Molecular Sciences & The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Crawley, Australia
| | - Colton D Payne
- The University of Queensland, Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Thaveshini Chetty
- The University of Western Australia, School of Molecular Sciences & The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Crawley, Australia
| | - Darren Crayn
- Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
| | - Oliver Berkowitz
- Department of Animal, Plant and Soil Sciences, School of Life Sciences & ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, AgriBio, The Centre for AgriBioscience, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - James Whelan
- Department of Animal, Plant and Soil Sciences, School of Life Sciences & ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, AgriBio, The Centre for AgriBioscience, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - K Johan Rosengren
- The University of Queensland, Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Joshua S Mylne
- The University of Western Australia, School of Molecular Sciences & The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Crawley, Australia
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Dasgupta K, Hotton S, Belknap W, Syed Y, Dardick C, Thilmony R, Thomson JG. Isolation of novel citrus and plum fruit promoters and their functional characterization for fruit biotechnology. BMC Biotechnol 2020; 20:43. [PMID: 32819338 PMCID: PMC7439555 DOI: 10.1186/s12896-020-00635-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Promoters that confer expression in fruit tissues are important tools for genetic engineering of fruit quality traits, yet few fruit-specific promoters have been identified, particularly for citrus fruit development. Results In this study, we report five citrus fruit-specific/preferential promoters for genetic engineering. Additionally, we have characterized a novel fruit-preferential promoter from plum. Genes specifically expressed in fruit tissues were selected and their isolated promoter regions were fused with the GUSPlus reporter gene for evaluation in transgenic plants. Stable transformation in Micro-Tom tomato demonstrated that the candidate promoter regions exhibit differing levels of expression and with varying degrees of fruit specificity. Conclusions Among the five candidate citrus promoters characterized in this study, the CitSEP promoter showed a fruit-specific expression pattern, while the CitWAX and CitJuSac promoters exhibited high fruit-preferential expression with strong activity in the fruit, weak activity in floral tissues and low or undetectable activity in other tissues. The CitVO1, CitUNK and PamMybA promoters, while exhibiting strong fruit-preferential expression, also showed consistent weak but detectable activity in leaves and other vegetative tissues. Use of these fruit specific/preferential promoters for genetic engineering can help with precise expression of beneficial genes and help with accurate prediction of the activity of new genes in host fruit plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kasturi Dasgupta
- Citrus Research Board, Visalia, CA, USA.,Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA.,Present address: Impossible Foods, Redwood City, CA, 94063, USA
| | - Sara Hotton
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA
| | - William Belknap
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA
| | - Yasra Syed
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA
| | - Christopher Dardick
- Genetic Improvement of Fruit Crops using advanced Genomics and Breeding Technologies, Kearneysville, WV, USA
| | - Roger Thilmony
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA.
| | - James G Thomson
- Crop Improvement and Genetics, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA, USA.
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De Novo Peptide Sequencing Reveals Many Cyclopeptides in the Human Gut and Other Environments. Cell Syst 2019; 10:99-108.e5. [PMID: 31864964 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2019.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2019] [Revised: 09/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Cyclic and branch cyclic peptides (cyclopeptides) represent a class of bioactive natural products that include many antibiotics and anti-tumor compounds. Despite the recent advances in metabolomics analysis, still little is known about the cyclopeptides in the human gut and their possible interactions due to a lack of computational analysis pipelines that are applicable to such compounds. Here, we introduce CycloNovo, an algorithm for automated de novo cyclopeptide analysis and sequencing that employs de Bruijn graphs, the workhorse of DNA sequencing algorithms, to identify cyclopeptides in spectral datasets. CycloNovo reconstructed 32 previously unreported cyclopeptides (to the best of our knowledge) in the human gut and reported over a hundred cyclopeptides in other environments represented by various spectra on Global Natural Products Social Molecular Network (GNPS). https://github.com/bbehsaz/cyclonovo.
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Fisher MF, Payne CD, Rosengren KJ, Mylne JS. An Orbitide from Ratibida columnifera Seed Containing 16 Amino Acid Residues. JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS 2019; 82:2152-2158. [PMID: 31392883 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.9b00111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Cyclic peptides are abundant in plants and have attracted interest due to their bioactivity and potential as drug scaffolds. Orbitides are head-to-tail cyclic peptides that are ribosomally synthesized, post-translationally modified, and lack disulfide bonds. All known orbitides contain 5-12 amino acid residues. Here we describe PLP-53, a novel orbitide from the seed of Ratibida columnifera. PLP-53 consists of 16 amino acids, four residues larger than any known orbitide. NMR structural studies showed that, compared to previously characterized orbitides, PLP-53 is more flexible and, under the studied conditions, did not adopt a single ordered conformation based on analysis of NOEs and chemical shifts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark F Fisher
- School of Molecular Sciences , The University of Western Australia , 35 Stirling Highway , Crawley , WA 6009 , Australia
| | - Colton D Payne
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences , The University of Queensland , Brisbane , QLD 4072 , Australia
| | - K Johan Rosengren
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences , The University of Queensland , Brisbane , QLD 4072 , Australia
| | - Joshua S Mylne
- School of Molecular Sciences , The University of Western Australia , 35 Stirling Highway , Crawley , WA 6009 , Australia
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