Biosynthesis of glycosylated derivatives of tylosin in Streptomyces venezuelae

Streptomyces venezuelae YJ028, bearing a deletion of the entire biosynthetic gene cluster encoding the pikromycin polyketide synthases and desosamine biosynthetic enzymes, was used as a bioconversion system for combinatorial biosynthesis of glycosylated derivatives of tylosin. Two engineered deoxysugar biosynthetic pathways for the biosynthesis of TDP-3-O-demethyl-D-chalcose or TDP-Lrhamnose in conjunction with the glycosyltransferaseauxiliary protein pair DesVII/DesVIII were expressed in a S. venezuelae YJ028 mutant strain. Supplementation of each mutant strain capable of producing TDP-3-O-demethyl- D-chalcose or TDP-L-rhamnose with tylosin aglycone tylactone resulted in the production of the 3-O-demethyl- D-chalcose, D-quinovose, or L-rhamnose-glycosylated tylactone.     

Engineered biosynthesis of glycosylated derivatives of narbomycin and evaluation of their antibacterial activities

A 14-membered macrolide antibiotic narbomycin produced from Streptomyces venezuelae ATCC 15439 is composed of polyketide macrolactone ring and D-desosamine as a deoxysugar moiety, which acts as an important determinant of its antibacterial activity. In order to generate diverse glycosylated derivatives of narbomycin, expression plasmids carrying different deoxysugar biosynthetic gene cassettes and the gene encoding a substrate-flexible glycosyltransferase DesVII were constructed and introduced into S. venezuelae YJ003 mutant strain bearing a deletion of thymidine-5'-diphospho-D-desosamine biosynthetic gene cluster. The resulting recombinants of S. venezuelae produced a range of new analogs of narbomycin, which possess unnatural sugar moieties instead of native deoxysugar D-desosamine. The structures of narbomycin derivatives were determined through nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry analyses and their antibacterial activities were evaluated in vitro against erythromycin-susceptible and -resistant Enterococcus faecium and Staphylococcus aureus. Substitution with L-rhamnose or 3-O-demethyl-D-chalcose was demonstrated to exhibit greater antibacterial activity than narbomycin and the clinically relevant erythromycin. This work provides new insight into the functions of deoxysugar biosynthetic enzymes and structure-activity relationships of the sugar moieties attached to the macrolides and demonstrate the potential of combinatorial biosynthesis for the generation of new macrolides carrying diverse sugars with increased antibacterial activities.     

Characterization of TDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose-3,4-ketoisomerase from the D-mycaminose biosynthetic pathway of Streptomyces fradiae: in vitro activity and substrate specificity studies

Deoxysugars are critical structural elements for the bioactivity of many natural products. Ongoing work on elucidating a variety of deoxysugar biosynthetic pathways has paved the way for manipulation of these pathways for the generation of structurally diverse glycosylated natural products. In the course of this work, the biosynthesis of d-mycaminose in the tylosin pathway of Streptomyces fradiae was investigated. Attempts to reconstitute the entire mycaminose biosynthetic machinery in a heterologous host led to the discovery of a previously overlooked gene, tyl1a, encoding an enzyme thought to convert TDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-d-glucose to TDP-3-keto-6-deoxy-d-glucose, a 3,4-ketoisomerization reaction in the pathway. Tyl1a has now been overexpressed, purified, and assayed, and its activity has been verified by product analysis. Incubation of Tyl1a and the C-3 aminotransferase TylB, the next enzyme in the pathway, produced TDP-3-amino-3,6-dideoxy-d-glucose, confirming that these two enzymes act sequentially. Steady state kinetic parameters of the Tyl1a-catalyzed reaction were determined, and the ability of Tyl1a and TylB to process a C-2 deoxygenated substrate and a CDP-linked substrate was also demonstrated. Enzymes catalyzing 3,4-ketoisomerization of hexoses represent a new class of enzymes involved in unusual sugar biosynthesis. The fact that Tyl1a exhibits a relaxed substrate specificity holds potential for future deoxysugar biosynthetic engineering endeavors.     

Engineered biosynthesis of gilvocarcin analogues with altered deoxyhexopyranose moieties

A combinatorial biosynthetic approach was used to interrogate the donor substrate flexibility of GilGT, the glycosyltransferase involved in C-glycosylation during gilvocarcin biosynthesis. Complementation of gilvocarcin mutant Streptomyces lividans TK24 (cosG9B3-U(-)), in which the biosynthesis of the natural sugar donor substrate was compromised, with various deoxysugar plasmids led to the generation of six gilvocarcin analogues with altered saccharide moieties. Characterization of the isolated gilvocarcin derivatives revealed five new compounds, including 4-β-C-D-olivosyl-gilvocarcin V (D-olivosyl GV), 4-β-C-D-olivosyl-gilvocarcin M (D-olivosyl GM), 4-β-C-D-olivosyl-gilvocarcin E (D-olivosyl GE), 4-α-C-L-rhamnosyl-gilvocarcin M (polycarcin M), 4-α-C-L-rhamnosyl-gilvocarcin E (polycarcin E), and the recently characterized 4-α-C-L-rhamnosyl-gilvocarcin V (polycarcin V). Preliminary anticancer assays showed that D-olivosyl-gilvocarcin and polycarcin V exhibit antitumor activities comparable to that of their parent drug congener, gilvocarcin V, against human lung cancer (H460), murine lung cancer (LL/2), and breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines. Our findings demonstrate GilGT to be a moderately flexible C-glycosyltransferase able to transfer both D- and L-hexopyranose moieties to the unique angucyclinone-derived benzo[D]naphtho[1,2b]pyran-6-one backbone of the gilvocarcins.     

The entire nogalamycin biosynthetic gene cluster of Streptomyces nogalater: characterization of a 20-kb DNA region and generation of hybrid structures

Fragments spanning 20 kb of Streptomyces nogalater genomic DNA were characterized to elucidate the molecular genetic basis of the biosynthetic pathway of the anthracycline antibiotic nogalamycin. Structural analysis of the products obtained by expression of the fragments in S. galilaeus and S. peucetius mutants producing aclacinomycin and daunomycin metabolites, respectively, revealed hybrid compounds in which either the aglycone or the sugar moiety was modified. Subsequent sequence analysis revealed twenty ORFs involved in nogalamycin biosynthesis, of which eleven could be assigned to the deoxysugar pathway, four to aglycone biosynthesis, while the remaining five express products with unknown function. On the basis of sequence similarity and experimental data, the functions of the products of the newly discovered genes were determined. The results suggest that the entire biosynthetic gene cluster for nogalamycin is now known. Furthermore, the compounds obtained by heterologous expression of the genes show that it is possible to use the genes in combinatorial biosynthesis to create novel chemical structures for drug screening purposes.     

Discovery and molecular engineering of sugar-containing natural product biosynthetic pathways in actinomycetes

Significant progress has recently been made concerning the engineering of deoxysugar biosynthesis. The biosynthetic gene clusters of several deoxysugars from various polyketides and aminoglycosides-producing microorganisms have been cloned and studied. This review introduces the biosynthetic pathways of several deoxysugars and the generation of novel hybrid macrolide antibiotics via the coexpression of deoxysugar biosynthetic gene cassettes and the substrateflexible glycosyltransferases in a host organism as well as the production of TDP-deoxysugar derivatives via one-pot enzymatic reactions with the identified enzymes. These recent developments in the engineering of deoxysugars biosynthesis may pave the way to create novel secondary metabolites with potential biological activities.     

Precursor for biosynthesis of sugar moiety of doxorubicin depends on rhamnose biosynthetic pathway in Streptomyces peucetius ATCC 27952

The doxorubicin biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces peucetius ATCC 27952 contains a TDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase gene, dnmM, that is putatively involved in the biosynthesis of daunosamine, but the gene contains a frameshift in the DNA sequence that would cause premature termination of translation. In pursuit of another TDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase in S. peucetius, a homologue gene, rmbB, was found, whose deduced product exhibits high sequence similarity to a number of TDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratases. The gene was located within a putative rhamnose biosynthetic gene cluster at another locus in the genome. RmbB was verified to be a functional TDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase by enzyme assay as it catalyzed the conversion of TDP-D-glucose into TDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose. Inactivation of rmbB in the S. peucetius genome abolished the production of doxorubicin while complementation of the same gene in an rmbB knockout mutant restored the doxorubicin production. Hence, rmbB provides TDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose as a nucleotide sugar precursor for the biosynthesis of doxorubicin.     

Endogenous Inhibitors for Spore Germination in Lygodium japonicum and Their Inhibitory Effects on Pollen Germinations in Camellia japonica and Camellia sinensis

Several kinds of anthracyclines having γ-rhodofnycinone as the aglycone were isolated from Streptomyces cosmosus TMF 518, and their derivatives were prepared by chemical modification. We tested their differentiation inducing activity in Friend leukemia cells and clarified their structure activity relationship as follows: 1) The aglycone, γ-rhodomycinone, had no differentiation inducing activity but was cytotoxic; 2) the compounds with two sugar chains at both C7 and C10 had more potent differentiation inducing activity than those with only a sugar chain at C-10; 3) cosmomycin C was the most favorable candidate for an anticancer agent of all anthracyclines tested, because the value of ED₅₀ (cytotoxicity)/ED₅₀ (differentiation) was as high as 3000; and 4) the increase in differentiation inducing activity and cytotoxicity was not always in parallel.     

Metabolic and functional diversity of saponins,biosynthetic intermediates and semi-synthetic derivatives

Abstract

Saponins are widely distributed plant natural products with vast structural and functional diversity. They are typically composed of a hydrophobic aglycone, which is extensively decorated with functional groups prior to the addition of hydrophilic sugar moieties, to result in surface-active amphipathic compounds. The saponins are broadly classified as triterpenoids, steroids or steroidal glycoalkaloids, based on the aglycone structure from which they are derived. The saponins and their biosynthetic intermediates display a variety of biological activities of interest to the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food sectors. Although their relevance in industrial applications has long been recognized, their role in plants is underexplored. Recent research on modulating native pathway flux in saponin biosynthesis has demonstrated the roles of saponins and their biosynthetic intermediates in plant growth and development. Here, we review the literature on the effects of these molecules on plant physiology, which collectively implicate them in plant primary processes. The industrial uses and potential of saponins are discussed with respect to structure and activity, highlighting the undoubted value of these molecules as therapeutics.     

Achievements and impacts of glycosylation reactions involved in natural product biosynthesis in prokaryotes

Bioactive natural products, such as polyketides, flavonoids, glycopeptides, and aminoglycosides, have been used as therapeutic agents. Many of them contain structurally diverse sugar moieties attached to the aglycone core structures. Glycosyltransferases (GTs) catalyze the attachment of nucleotide-activated sugar substrates to acceptor aglycones. Because these sugar moieties are usually essential for biological activity, in vivo pathway engineering in prokaryotic hosts and in vitro enzymatic approaches coupled with GT engineering are currently being used to synthesize novel glycosylated derivatives, and some of them exhibited improved biological activities compared to the parent molecules. Therefore, harnessing the potential of diverse glycosylation reactions in prokaryotes will increase the structural diversity of natural products and the possibility to generate new bioactive products.     

A defined system for hybrid macrolide biosynthesis in Saccharopolyspora erythraea

The biological activity of polyketide antibiotics is often strongly dependent on the presence and type of deoxysugar residues attached to the aglycone core. A system is described here, based on the erythromycin-producing strain of Saccharopolyspora erythraea, for detection of hybrid glycoside formation, and this system has been used to demonstrate that an amino sugar characteristic of 14-membered macrolides (D-desosamine) can be efficiently attached to a 16-membered aglycone substrate. First, the S. erythraea mutant strain DM was created by deletion of both eryBV and eryCIII genes encoding the respective ery glycosyltransferase genes. The glycosyltransferase OleG2 from Streptomyces antibioticus, which transfers L-oleandrose, has recently been shown to transfer rhamnose to the oxygen at C-3 of erythronolide B and 6-deoxyerythronolide B. In full accordance with this finding, when oleG2 was expressed in S. erythraea DM, 3-O-rhamnosyl-erythronolide B and 3-O-rhamnosyl-6-deoxyerythronolide B were produced. Having thus validated the expression system, endogenous aglycone production was prevented by deletion of the polyketide synthase (eryA) genes from S. erythraea DM, creating the triple mutant SGT2. To examine the ability of the mycaminosyltransferase TylM2 from Streptomyces fradiae to utilise a different amino sugar, tylM2 was integrated into S. erythraea SGT2, and the resulting strain was fed with the 16-membered aglycone tylactone, the normal TylM2 substrate. A new hybrid glycoside was isolated in good yield and characterized as 5-O-desosaminyl-tylactone, indicating that TylM2 may be a useful glycosyltransferase for combinatorial biosynthesis. 5-O-glucosyl-tylactone was also obtained, showing that endogenous activated sugars and glycosyltransferases compete for aglycone in these cells.     

Generation of hybrid elloramycin analogs by combinatorial biosynthesis using genes from anthracycline-type and macrolide biosynthetic pathways

Elloramycin and oleandomycin are two polyketide compounds produced by Streptomyces olivaceus Tü2353 and Streptomyces antibioticus ATCC11891, respectively. Elloramycin is an anthracycline-like antitumor drug and oleandomycin a macrolide antibiotic. Expression in S. albus of a cosmid (cos16F4) containing part of the elloramycin biosynthetic gene cluster produced the elloramycin non-glycosylated intermediate 8-demethyl-tetracenomycin C. Several plasmid constructs harboring different gene combinations of L-oleandrose (neutral 2,6-dideoxyhexose attached to the macrolide antibiotic oleandomycin) biosynthetic genes of S. antibioticus that direct the biosynthesis of L-olivose, L-oleandrose and L-rhamnose were coexpressed with cos16F4 in S. albus. Three new hybrid elloramycin analogs were produced by these recombinant strains through combinatorial biosynthesis, containing elloramycinone or 12a-demethyl-elloramycinone (= 8-demethyl-tetracenomycin C) as aglycone moiety encoded by S. olivaceus genes and different sugar moieties, coded by the S. antibioticus genes. Among them is L-olivose, which is here described for the first time as a sugar moiety of a natural product.     

New olivosyl derivatives of methymycin/pikromycin from an engineered strain of Streptomyces venezuelae

A mutant strain of Streptomyces venezuelae was engineered by deletion of the entire gene cluster related to biosynthesis of the endogenous deoxysugar (TDP-D-desosamine) and replacement with genes required for biosynthesis of an intermediate sugar (TDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose) or an exogenous sugar (TDP-D-olivose), from the oleandomycin and urdamycin deoxysugar pathways. The 'sugar-flexible' glycosyltransferase (DesVII) was able to attach the intermediate sugar and the new sugar to both 12- and 14-membered macrolactones thus producing quinovose or olivose glycosylated 10-deoxymethynolide and narbonolide, respectively. In addition, hydroxylated analogs of the new metabolites were detected. These results demonstrate a successful attempt of engineering the deoxysugar pathway for generation of novel hybrid macrolide antibiotics.     

Biosynthesis and the isolation of the new anthracyclin antibiotics, violamycins A, BI, BII and their aglycones]

The conditions of fermentation, isolation and some of the physico-chemical properties of the new anthracycline antibiotics, i. e. viomycin A, BI, BII and their aglycones, produced by a strain of Streptomyces violaceus IMET JA 6844 are described. Violamycin A is mainly a complex of aminoglycosides of epsilon- and dzeta-isorhodomycinone, beta-rhodomycinone and (alpha)2-rhodomycinone. The sugar component is rhodosamine. Violomycin BI is mainly a complex of trisaccharides of the same aglycones mentioned above. The sugar components are rhodosamine, 2-desoxy-L-fucose and rhodinose. Violomycin BII is mainly a rhodosaminyl-2-desoxy-L-fucosyl-derivative of epsilon- and dzeta-isorhodomycinone, beta- and epsilon-rhodomycinone and (alpha)2-rhodomycinone. Violamycin complexes A, BI, BII mainly consist of 6 aglycone components which are similar to the other members of anthracyline antibiotics but can be diferentiated from them by physico-chemical and biological properties. Epsilon- and dzeta-isorhodomycinone, epsilon- and (alpha)2-rhodomycinone and dzeta-rhodomycinone one of the 8 minor components contained in the mixture of the aglycones of the violomycin complex so far has been determined as constituents of an antibiotic.     

The Formation of Sugar Chains in Triterpenoid Saponins and Glycoalkaloids

Triterpenoid saponins and structurally related steroidal glycoalkaloids are a large and diverse family of plant glycosides. The importance of these compounds for chemical protection of plants against microbial pathogens and/or herbivores is now well-documented. Moreover, these compounds have a variety of commercial applications, e.g. as drugs or raw materials for pharmaceutical industry. Until recently there were only sparse data on the biosynthesis of saponins and glycoalkaloids, especially at the enzyme level. Substantial progress has recently been made, however, in our understanding of biosynthetic routes leading to the formation of the diverse array of aglycone skeletons found in these compounds as well as mechanisms of synthesis of their sugar moieties. This review highlights some of the advances made over past two decades in our understanding of the formation and modification of sugar moieties in triterpenoid saponins and glycoalkaloids.     

Cytochrome P450 homolog is responsible for C-N bond formation between aglycone and deoxysugar in the staurosporine biosynthesis of Streptomyces sp. TP-A0274

The staurosporine biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces sp. TP-A0274 consists of 15 sta genes. In the cluster, it was predicted that staN, which shows high similarity to cytochrome P450 is involved in C-N bond formation between the nitrogen at N-12 of aglycone and the carbon at C-5' of deoxysugar. The staN disruptant produced holyrine A instead of staurosporine. The structure of holyrine A is aglycone linking to 2,3,6-trideoxy-3-aminoaldohexose between N-13 and C-1' of deoxysugar. Holyrine A was converted to staurosporine by the staD disruptant. These results indicate that StaN, cytochrome P450 is responsible for C-N bond formation. This is the first example of C-N bond formation catalyzed by cytochrome P450. In addition, holyrine A was confirmed to be an intermediate of staurosporine biosynthesis, which suggests that the N- and O-methylation at C-3' and C-4' takes place after the formation of the C-N bond between C-5' and N-12 in the biosynthetic pathway.     

Insights in the glycosylation steps during biosynthesis of the antitumor anthracycline cosmomycin: characterization of two glycosyltransferase genes

Glycosylation pattern in cosmomycins is a distinctive feature among anthracyclines. These antitumor compounds possess two trisaccharide chains attached at C-7 and C-10, each of them with structural variability, mainly at the distal deoxysugar moieties. We have characterized a 14-kb chromosomal region from Streptomyces olindensis containing 13 genes involved in cosmomycin biosynthesis. Two of the genes, cosG and cosK, coding for glycosyltransferase were inactivated with the generation of five new derivatives. Structural elucidation of these compounds showed altered glycosylation patterns indicating the capability of both glycosyltransferases of transferring deoxysugars to both sides of the aglycone and the flexibility of CosK with respect to the deoxysugar donor. A model is proposed for the glycosylation steps during cosmomycins biosynthesis.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at     

Doxorubicin and two of its analogues are preferential inducers of homologous recombination compared with mutational events in somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster

The genotoxic effects of the anthracycline doxorubicin (DOX) and two of its analogues, epirubicin (EPI) and pirarubicin (THP) were studied using the wing Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test (SMART) in Drosophila melanogaster. These compounds are classified as topoisomerase II (topo II) poisons, acting by stabilizing a topoisomerase II-cleaved DNA complex. Using the standard version of the SMART test it was possible to estimate the quantitative and qualitative genotoxic effects of these compounds, comparing the wing spot frequencies in marker- and balancer-heterozygous flies. The results obtained indicate that all three compounds induce a high frequency of spots related to homologous recombination (HR), which is the major event responsible for their genetic toxicity. Pirarubicin was the most genotoxic anthracycline, inducing approximately 21 times more genetic lesions than doxorubicin, probably due to the presence of a second sugar ring in the amino sugar moiety in its chemical structure. Although the only difference between epirubicin and doxorubicin is the steric position of the amino sugar 4'-OH in the molecule, epirubicin is approximately 1.6 times as genotoxic as doxorubicin.     

Novel desosaminyl derivatives of dihydrochalcomycin from a genetically engineered strain of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Streptomyces</Emphasis> sp.

Dihydrochalcomycin from Streptomyces sp. KCTC 0041BP is a 16-membered macrolide antibiotic containing two deoxysugars (d-chalcose and d-mycinose) that are O-glycosylated at the C-5 and C-20 positions, respectively. The desosamine sugar cassette was constructed from pikromycin-deoxysugar biosynthetic genes and transformed into Streptomyces sp. GerSM1, which was engineered for deletion of the genes related to TDP-d-chalcose biosynthesis (gerB, gerN and gerMI). Novel 16-membered macrolides (5-O-desosaminyl derivatives of dihydrochalcomycin) were detected by ESI-MS, LC/MS, and MS/MS thereby demonstrating combinatorial biosynthesis of the deoxysugar in 16-membered macrolide antibiotics.     

Mining and engineering natural-product biosynthetic pathways

Natural products continue to fulfill an important role in the development of therapeutic agents. In addition, with the advent of chemical genetics and high-throughput screening platforms, these molecules have become increasingly valuable as tools for interrogating fundamental aspects of biological systems. To access the vast portion of natural-product structural diversity that remains unexploited for these and other applications, genome mining and microbial metagenomic approaches are proving particularly powerful. When these are coupled with recombineering and related genetic tools, large biosynthetic gene clusters that remain intractable or cryptic in the native host can be more efficiently cloned and expressed in a suitable heterologous system. For lead optimization and the further structural diversification of natural-product libraries, combinatorial biosynthetic engineering has also become indispensable. However, our ability to rationally redesign biosynthetic pathways is often limited by our lack of understanding of the structure, dynamics and interplay between the many enzymes involved in complex biosynthetic pathways. Despite this, recent structures of fatty acid synthases should allow a more accurate prediction of the likely architecture of related polyketide synthase and nonribosomal peptide synthetase multienzymes.