Unraveling polyketide synthesis in members of the genus Aspergillus

Aspergillus species have the ability to produce a wide range of secondary metabolites including polyketides that are generated by multi-domain polyketide synthases (PKSs). Recent biochemical studies using dissected single or multiple domains from PKSs have provided deep insight into how these PKSs control the structural outcome. Moreover, the recent genome sequencing of several species has greatly facilitated the understanding of the biosynthetic pathways for these secondary metabolites. In this review, we will highlight the current knowledge regarding polyketide biosynthesis in Aspergillus based on the domain architecture of non-reducing, highly reducing, and partially reducing PKSs, and PKS-non-ribosomal peptide synthetases.     

海绵体动物中trans-AT聚酮合成酶来源的聚酮化合物的生物合成

海绵体动物分离到的聚酮类化合物很多是由其共生或附生微生物体内的trans-AT聚酮合成酶催化产生的。利用宏基因组技术克隆具有生物活性的聚酮化合物的生物合成基因簇,不但能阐明活性化合物的生物合成路径,而且可以通过异源表达获得目标化合物。本文综述了海绵体动物来源的trans-AT聚酮合成酶产生的聚酮化合物生物合成及其基因簇的研究进展。     

Characterization of type II thioesterases involved in natamycin biosynthesis in Streptomyces chattanoogensis L10

The known functions of type II thioesterases (TEIIs) in type I polyketide synthases (PKSs) include selecting of starter acyl units, removal of aberrant extender acyl units, releasing of final products, and dehydration of polyketide intermediates. In this study, we characterized two TEIIs (ScnI and PKSIaTEII) from Streptomyces chattanoogensis L10. Deletion of scnI in S. chattanoogensis L10 decreased the natamycin production by about 43%. Both ScnI and PKSIaTEII could remove acyl units from the acyl carrier proteins (ACPs) involved in the natamycin biosynthesis. Our results show that the TEII could play important roles in both the initiation step and the elongation steps of a polyketide biosynthesis; the intracellular TEIIs involved in different biosynthetic pathways could complement each other.     

Improved pestalotiollide B production by deleting competing polyketide synthase genes in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pestalotiopsis microspora</Emphasis>

Pestalotiollide B, an analog of dibenzodioxocinones which are inhibitors of cholesterol ester transfer proteins, is produced by Pestalotiopsis microspora NK17. To increase the production of pestalotiollide B, we attempted to eliminate competing polyketide products by deleting the genes responsible for their biosynthesis. We successfully deleted 41 out of 48 putative polyketide synthases (PKSs) in the genome of NK17. Nine of the 41 PKS deleted strains had significant increased production of pestalotiollide B (P < 0.05). For instance, deletion of pks35, led to an increase of pestalotiollide B by 887%. We inferred that these nine PKSs possibly lead to branch pathways that compete for precursors with pestalotiollide B, or that convert the product. Deletion of some other PKS genes such as pks8 led to a significant decrease of pestalotiollide B, suggesting they are responsible for its biosynthesis. Our data demonstrated that improvement of pestalotiollide B production can be achieved by eliminating competing polyketides.     

Biosynthesis of Cell Envelope-Associated Phenolic Glycolipids in Mycobacterium marinum

Phenolic glycolipids (PGLs) are polyketide synthase-derived glycolipids unique to pathogenic mycobacteria. PGLs are found in several clinically relevant species, including various Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, Mycobacterium leprae, and several nontuberculous mycobacterial pathogens, such as M. marinum. Multiple lines of investigation implicate PGLs in virulence, thus underscoring the relevance of a deep understanding of PGL biosynthesis. We report mutational and biochemical studies that interrogate the mechanism by which PGL biosynthetic intermediates (p-hydroxyphenylalkanoates) synthesized by the iterative polyketide synthase Pks15/1 are transferred to the noniterative polyketide synthase PpsA for acyl chain extension in M. marinum. Our findings support a model in which the transfer of the intermediates is dependent on a p-hydroxyphenylalkanoyl-AMP ligase (FadD29) acting as an intermediary between the iterative and the noniterative synthase systems. Our results also establish the p-hydroxyphenylalkanoate extension ability of PpsA, the first-acting enzyme of a multisubunit noniterative polyketide synthase system. Notably, this noniterative system is also loaded with fatty acids by a specific fatty acyl-AMP ligase (FadD26) for biosynthesis of phthiocerol dimycocerosates (PDIMs), which are nonglycosylated lipids structurally related to PGLs. To our knowledge, the partially overlapping PGL and PDIM biosynthetic pathways provide the first example of two distinct, pathway-dedicated acyl-AMP ligases loading the same type I polyketide synthase system with two alternate starter units to produce two structurally different families of metabolites. The studies reported here advance our understanding of the biosynthesis of an important group of mycobacterial glycolipids.     

Genetic approaches for controlling ratios of related polyketide products in fermentation processes

Simple acyl thioesters are used as precursors for both the initiation and elongation steps in polyketide biosynthetic processes. Several structurally related polyketide products are sometimes made in these processes. These analogs are typically generated by a combination of two factors: availability of structurally similar biosynthetic precursors, and biosynthetic enzymes unable to effectively discriminate between them. Often, only one polyketide product is desired from a fermentation process, requiring a method to control the ratio of these different analogs. Preferential production of one desired analog is accomplished using random mutagenesis and manipulation of fermentation conditions. A genetic enzymatic understanding of polyketide biosynthesis, as well as the pathways that provide the relevant precursors, allows for a rational and more contemporary approach for control of analogs produced in fermentation processes. This approach involves genetic manipulation of either the pathways that provide pools of the acyl CoA thioester precursors, or the function/specificity of the appropriate biosynthetic enzymes. Reviewed herein are three such examples where these approaches have been carried out successfully with polyketide biosynthetic processes. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2001) 27, 368–377. Received 01 March 2001/ Accepted in revised form 08 August 2001     

海洋来源节菱孢菌ZSDS1-F3中PKS-NRPS类天然产物挖掘

【目的】以基因组信息为指导,定向激活海洋来源真菌Arthrinium arundinisZSDS1-F3中沉默的聚酮合成酶-非核糖体肽合成酶(PKS-NRPS)类生物合成基因簇,鉴定次级代谢产物结构。【方法】通过启动子工程和异源表达的策略激活实验室培养条件下沉默或低表达的生物合成基因簇,实现目标化合物的分离,通过HR-ESI-MS和NMR数据分析鉴定产物结构,结合基因重组和生物信息学分析结果推导化合物的生物合成途径。【结果】依据基因组生物信息学分析,从海洋来源真菌A. arundinis ZSDS1-F3中选取一个编码PKS-NRPS类次级代谢产物的生物合成基因簇开展研究,在宿主Aspergillus nidulansA1145中实现了基因簇的异源表达,从中分离到2个新化合物,并推导了其生物合成途径。【结论】基因组信息指导下的天然产物挖掘,可以目标明确地分离产物,加快真菌中新颖天然产物的发现步伐。     

Genes for the biosynthesis of spinosyns: applications for yield improvement in Saccharopolyspora spinosa

Spinosyns A and D are the active ingredients in an insect control agent produced by fermentation of Saccharopolyspora spinosa. Spinosyns are macrolides with a 21-carbon, tetracyclic lactone backbone to which the deoxysugars forosamine and tri-O-methylrhamnose are attached. The spinosyn biosynthesis genes, except for the rhamnose genes, are located in a cluster that spans 74 kb of the S. spinosa genome. DNA sequence analysis, targeted gene disruptions and bioconversion studies identified five large genes encoding type I polyketide synthase subunits, and 14 genes involved in sugar biosynthesis, sugar attachment to the polyketide or cross-bridging of the polyketide. Four rhamnose biosynthetic genes, two of which are also necessary for forosamine biosynthesis, are located outside the spinosyn gene cluster. Duplication of the spinosyn genes linked to the polyketide synthase genes stimulated the final step in the biosynthesis — the conversion of the forosamine-less pseudoaglycones to endproducts. Duplication of genes involved in the early steps of deoxysugar biosynthesis increased spinosyn yield significantly. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2001) 27, 399–402. Received 31 May 2001/ Accepted in revised form 09 July 2001     

Versatility of polyketide synthases in generating metabolic diversity

Polyketide synthases (PKSs) form a large family of multifunctional proteins involved in the biosynthesis of diverse classes of natural products. Architecturally at least three different types of PKSs have been discovered in the microbial world and recent years have revealed tremendous versatility of PKSs, both in terms of their structural and functional organization and in their ability to produce compounds other than typical secondary metabolites. Mycobacterium tuberculosis exploits polyketide biosynthetic enzymes to synthesize complex lipids, many of which are essential for its survival. The functional significance of the large repertoire of PKSs in Dictyostelium discoideum, perhaps in producing developmental regulating factors, is emerging. Recently determined structures of fatty acid synthases (FASs) and PKSs now provide an opportunity to delineate the mechanistic and structural basis of polyketide biosynthetic machinery.     

Phylogenetic detection of horizontal gene transfer during the step-wise genesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background  

In the past decade, the availability of complete genome sequence data has greatly facilitated comparative genomic research aimed at addressing genetic variability within species. More recently, analysis across species has become feasible, especially in genera where genome sequencing projects of multiple species have been initiated. To understand the genesis of the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis within a genus where the majority of species are harmless environmental organisms, we have used genome sequence data from 16 mycobacteria to look for evidence of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) associated with the emergence of pathogenesis. First, using multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) of 20 housekeeping genes across these species, we derived a phylogeny that serves as the basis for HGT assignments. Next, we performed alignment searches for the 3989 proteins of M. tuberculosis H37Rv against 15 other mycobacterial genomes, generating a matrix of 59835 comparisons, to look for genetic elements that were uniquely found in M. tuberculosis and closely-related pathogenic mycobacteria. To assign when foreign genes were likely acquired, we designed a bioinformatic program called mycoHIT (mycobacterial homologue investigation tool) to analyze these data in conjunction with the MLSA-based phylogeny.     

Natural biocombinatorics in the polyketide synthase genes of the actinobacterium Streptomyces avermitilis

Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) of bacteria provide an enormous reservoir of natural chemical diversity. Studying natural biocombinatorics may aid in the development of concepts for experimental design of genes for the biosynthesis of new bioactive compounds. Here we address the question of how the modularity of biosynthetic enzymes and the prevalence of multiple gene clusters in Streptomyces drive the evolution of metabolic diversity. The phylogeny of ketosynthase (KS) domains of Streptomyces PKSs revealed that the majority of modules involved in the biosynthesis of a single compound evolved by duplication of a single ancestor module. Using Streptomyces avermitilis as a model organism, we have reconstructed the evolutionary relationships of different domain types. This analysis suggests that 65% of the modules were altered by recombinational replacements that occurred within and between biosynthetic gene clusters. The natural reprogramming of the biosynthetic pathways was unambiguously confined to domains that account for the structural diversity of the polyketide products and never observed for the KS domains. We provide examples for natural acyltransferase (AT), ketoreductase (KR), and dehydratase (DH)–KR domain replacements. Potential sites of homologous recombination could be identified in interdomain regions and within domains. Our results indicate that homologous recombination facilitated by the modularity of PKS architecture is the most important mechanism underlying polyketide diversity in bacteria.     

Engineering of complex polyketide biosynthesis — insights from sequencing of the monensin biosynthetic gene cluster

The biosynthesis of complex reduced polyketides is catalysed in actinomycetes by large multifunctional enzymes, the modular Type I polyketide synthases (PKSs). Most of our current knowledge of such systems stems from the study of a restricted number of macrolide-synthesising enzymes. The sequencing of the genes for the biosynthesis of monensin A, a typical polyether ionophore polyketide, provided the first genetic evidence for the mechanism of oxidative cyclisation through which polyethers such as monensin are formed from the uncyclised products of the PKS. Two intriguing genes associated with the monensin PKS cluster code for proteins, which show strong homology with enzymes that trigger double bond migrations in steroid biosynthesis by generation of an extended enolate of an unsaturated ketone residue. A similar mechanism operating at the stage of an enoyl ester intermediate during chain extension on a PKS could allow isomerisation of an E double bond to the Z isomer. This process, together with epoxidations and cyclisations, form the basis of a revised proposal for monensin formation. The monensin PKS has also provided fresh insight into general features of catalysis by modular PKSs, in particular into the mechanism of chain initiation. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2001) 27, 360–367. Received 18 March 2001/ Accepted in revised form 09 July 2001     

Towards Prediction of Metabolic Products of Polyketide Synthases: An In Silico Analysis

Sequence data arising from an increasing number of partial and complete genome projects is revealing the presence of the polyketide synthase (PKS) family of genes not only in microbes and fungi but also in plants and other eukaryotes. PKSs are huge multifunctional megasynthases that use a variety of biosynthetic paradigms to generate enormously diverse arrays of polyketide products that posses several pharmaceutically important properties. The remarkable conservation of these gene clusters across organisms offers abundant scope for obtaining novel insights into PKS biosynthetic code by computational analysis. We have carried out a comprehensive in silico analysis of modular and iterative gene clusters to test whether chemical structures of the secondary metabolites can be predicted from PKS protein sequences. Here, we report the success of our method and demonstrate the feasibility of deciphering the putative metabolic products of uncharacterized PKS clusters found in newly sequenced genomes. Profile Hidden Markov Model analysis has revealed distinct sequence features that can distinguish modular PKS proteins from their iterative counterparts. For iterative PKS proteins, structural models of iterative ketosynthase (KS) domains have revealed novel correlations between the size of the polyketide products and volume of the active site pocket. Furthermore, we have identified key residues in the substrate binding pocket that control the number of chain extensions in iterative PKSs. For modular PKS proteins, we describe for the first time an automated method based on crucial intermolecular contacts that can distinguish the correct biosynthetic order of substrate channeling from a large number of non-cognate combinatorial possibilities. Taken together, our in silico analysis provides valuable clues for formulating rules for predicting polyketide products of iterative as well as modular PKS clusters. These results have promising potential for discovery of novel natural products by genome mining and rational design of novel natural products.     

Function of MbtH homologs in nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis and applications in secondary metabolite discovery

Mycobacterium tuberculosis encodes mycobactin, a peptide siderophore that is biosynthesized by a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) mechanism. Within the mycobactin biosynthetic gene cluster is a gene that encodes a 71-amino-acid protein MbtH. Many other NRPS gene clusters harbor mbtH homologs, and recent genetic, biochemical, and structural studies have begun to shed light on the function(s) of these proteins. In some cases, MbtH-like proteins are required for biosynthesis of their cognate peptides, and non-cognate MbtH-like proteins have been shown to be partially complementary. Biochemical studies revealed that certain MbtH-like proteins participate in tight binding to NRPS proteins containing adenylation (A) domains where they stimulate adenylation reactions. Expression of MbtH-like proteins is important for a number of applications, including optimal production of native and genetically engineered secondary metabolites produced by mechanisms that employ NRPS enzymes. They also may serve as beacons to identify gifted actinomycetes and possibly other bacteria that encode multiple functional NRPS pathways for discovery of novel secondary metabolites by genome mining.     

Novel intermolecular iterative mechanism for biosynthesis of mycoketide catalyzed by a bimodular polyketide synthase

In recent years, remarkable versatility of polyketide synthases (PKSs) has been recognized; both in terms of their structural and functional organization as well as their ability to produce compounds other than typical secondary metabolites. Multifunctional Type I PKSs catalyze the biosynthesis of polyketide products by either using the same active sites repetitively (iterative) or by using these catalytic domains only once (modular) during the entire biosynthetic process. The largest open reading frame in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, pks12, was recently proposed to be involved in the biosynthesis of mannosyl-beta-1-phosphomycoketide (MPM). The PKS12 protein contains two complete sets of modules and has been suggested to synthesize mycoketide by five alternating condensations of methylmalonyl and malonyl units by using an iterative mode of catalysis. The bimodular iterative catalysis would require transfer of intermediate chains from acyl carrier protein domain of module 2 to ketosynthase domain of module 1. Such bimodular iterations during PKS biosynthesis have not been characterized and appear unlikely based on recent understanding of the three-dimensional organization of these proteins. Moreover, all known examples of iterative PKSs so far characterized involve unimodular iterations. Based on cell-free reconstitution of PKS12 enzymatic machinery, in this study, we provide the first evidence for a novel "modularly iterative" mechanism of biosynthesis. By combination of biochemical, computational, mutagenic, analytical ultracentrifugation and atomic force microscopy studies, we propose that PKS12 protein is organized as a large supramolecular assembly mediated through specific interactions between the C- and N-terminus linkers. PKS12 protein thus forms a modular assembly to perform repetitive condensations analogous to iterative proteins. This novel intermolecular iterative biosynthetic mechanism provides new perspective to our understanding of polyketide biosynthetic machinery and also suggests new ways to engineer polyketide metabolites. The characterization of novel molecular mechanisms involved in biosynthesis of mycobacterial virulent lipids has opened new avenues for drug discovery.     

Recombinatorial biosynthesis of polyketides

Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) from Streptomyces and related genera of bacteria produce many important pharmaceuticals. A program called CompGen was developed to carry out in silico homologous recombination between gene clusters encoding PKSs and determine whether recombinants have cluster architectures compatible with the production of polyketides. The chemical structure of recombinant polyketides was also predicted. In silico recombination was carried out for 47 well-characterised clusters. The predicted recombinants would produce 11,796 different polyketide structures. The molecular weights and average degree of reduction of the chemical structures are dispersed around the parental structures indicating that they are likely to include pharmaceutically interesting compounds. The details of the recombinants and the chemical structures were entered in a database called r-CSDB. The virtual compound library is a useful resource for computer-aided drug design and chemoinformatics strategies for finding pharmaceutically relevant chemical entities. A strategy to construct recombinant Streptomyces strains to produce these polyketides is described and the critical steps of mobilizing large biosynthetic clusters and producing new linear cloning vectors are illustrated by experimental data.