Ribosomal synthesis of nonstandard peptides.

It is well known that standard peptides, which comprise proteinogenic amino acids, can act as specific chemical probes to target proteins with high affinity. Despite this fact, a number of peptide drug leads have been abandoned because of their poor cell permeability and protease instability. On the other hand, nonstandard peptides isolated as natural products often exhibit remarkable pharmaco-behavior and stability in vivo. Although it is likely that numerous nonstandard therapeutic peptides capable of recognizing various targets could have been synthesized, enzymes for nonribosomal peptide syntheses are complex; therefore, it is difficult to engineer such modular enzymes to build nonstandard peptide libraries. Here we describe an emerging technology for the synthesis of nonstandard peptides that employs an integrated system of reconstituted cell-free translation and flexizymes. We summarize the historical background of this technology and discuss its current and future applications to the synthesis of nonstandard peptides and drug discovery.     

Exploring the biosynthesis of natural products and their inherent suitability for the rational design of desirable compounds through genetic engineering

Much effort has been invested in studying how natural products are biosynthesized, and great advances have been made in understanding how these compounds acquire their structural complexity and biological activities. In recent years, significant progress has been made due to the devoted efforts of scientists in this field and to technological advancements. Numerous details, applications, and innovative findings have been elucidated by scientists using biochemical, genetic, and molecular biological approaches. Here I present a comprehensive overview of highly valued biosynthetic proteins, polyketide synthase and nonribosomal peptide synthetase. I begin with "Diels-Alderase" a captivating enzyme that has the ability to catalyze a Diels-Alder reaction valued by chemists for its usefulness in chemical synthesis. A handful of these enzymes have been characterized and chemically authenticated. The most well understood enzyme of this category is macrophomate synthase. Secondly, I focus on the polyketide and nonribosomal peptide biosynthetic pathways and the enzyme assembly for producing its metabolite. Many important natural products are produced by this biosynthetic pathway as secondary metabolites, such as erythromycin, rifamycin, and FK520, as antibiotics and an immunosuppressive, respectively. I conclude with a discussion of nonribosomal peptides and their mechanistic pathways. Special attention will be devoted to de novo production of echinomycin in a heterologous manner, the earliest example of totally engineered biosynthesis of the biologically active form of a nonribosomal peptide host in Escherichia coli.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">In silico</Emphasis> analysis of methyltransferase domains involved in biosynthesis of secondary metabolites

Background  

Secondary metabolites biosynthesized by polyketide synthase (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) family of enzymes constitute several classes of therapeutically important natural products like erythromycin, rapamycin, cyclosporine etc. In view of their relevance for natural product based drug discovery, identification of novel secondary metabolite natural products by genome mining has been an area of active research. A number of different tailoring enzymes catalyze a variety of chemical modifications to the polyketide or nonribosomal peptide backbone of these secondary metabolites to enhance their structural diversity. Therefore, development of powerful bioinformatics methods for identification of these tailoring enzymes and assignment of their substrate specificity is crucial for deciphering novel secondary metabolites by genome mining.     

非核糖体多肽合成酶研究进展

细菌和真菌采用非核糖体系统合成一些重要的多肽类物质.近年来的研究表明,在该系统中发挥关键作用的是一类分子巨大的非核糖体多肽合成酶.它们由顺序排列的组件构成,酶分子结构本身即蕴涵着多肽合成的信息.对非核糖体多肽合成酶结构和功能的了解,使人们期望可以通过对这类酶的修饰和重组来合成一些新的多肽类物质.     

Design and application of multimodular peptide synthetases.

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases produce bioactive peptides of great structural diversity. Their modular organization makes them amenable to the construction of hybrid enzymes that synthesize novel products. New strategies for combinatorial approaches are being developed from the recent advances in nonribosomal peptide synthesis on the genetic, biochemical and structural level.     

Complexity generation during natural product biosynthesis using redox enzymes

Redox enzymes such as FAD-dependent and cytochrome P450 oxygenases play indispensible roles in generating structural complexity during natural product biosynthesis. In the pre-assembly steps, redox enzymes can convert garden variety primary metabolites into unique starter and extender building blocks. In the post-assembly tailoring steps, redox cascades can transform nascent scaffolds into structurally complex final products. In this review, we will discuss several recently characterized redox enzymes in the biosynthesis of polyketides and nonribosomal peptides.     

Practical 4'-phosphopantetheine active site discovery from proteomic samples

Polyketide and nonribosomal peptides constitute important classes of small molecule natural products. Due to the proven biological activities of these compounds, novel methods for discovery and study of the polyketide synthase (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes responsible for their production remains an area of intense interest, and proteomic approaches represent a relatively unexplored avenue. While these enzymes may be distinguished from the proteomic milieu by their use of the 4'-phosphopantetheine (PPant) post-translational modification, proteomic detection of PPant peptides is hindered by their low abundance and labile nature which leaves them unassigned using traditional database searching. Here we address key experimental and computational challenges to facilitate practical discovery of this important post-translational modification during shotgun proteomics analysis using low-resolution ion-trap mass spectrometers. Activity-based enrichment maximizes MS input of PKS/NRPS peptides, while targeted fragmentation detects putative PPant active sites. An improved data analysis pipeline allows experimental identification and validation of these PPant peptides directly from MS2 data. Finally, a machine learning approach is developed to directly detect PPant peptides from only MS2 fragmentation data. By providing new methods for analysis of an often cryptic post-translational modification, these methods represent a first step toward the study of natural product biosynthesis in proteomic settings.     

A PKS/NRPS/FAS Hybrid Gene Cluster from Serratia plymuthica RVH1 Encoding the Biosynthesis of Three Broad Spectrum,Zeamine-Related Antibiotics

Serratia plymuthica strain RVH1, initially isolated from an industrial food processing environment, displays potent antimicrobial activity towards a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. Isolation and subsequent structure determination of bioactive molecules led to the identification of two polyamino antibiotics with the same molecular structure as zeamine and zeamine II as well as a third, closely related analogue, designated zeamine I. The gene cluster encoding the biosynthesis of the zeamine antibiotics was cloned and sequenced and shown to encode FAS, PKS as well as NRPS related enzymes in addition to putative tailoring and export enzymes. Interestingly, several genes show strong homology to the pfa cluster of genes involved in the biosynthesis of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in marine bacteria. We postulate that a mixed FAS/PKS and a hybrid NRPS/PKS assembly line each synthesize parts of the backbone that are linked together post-assembly in the case of zeamine and zeamine I. This interaction reflects a unique interplay between secondary lipid and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Most likely, the zeamine antibiotics are produced as prodrugs that undergo activation in which a nonribosomal peptide sequence is cleaved off.     

Nonribosomal peptide synthesis and toxigenicity of cyanobacteria.

Nonribosomal peptide synthesis is achieved in prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes by the thiotemplate function of large, modular enzyme complexes known collectively as peptide synthetases. These and other multifunctional enzyme complexes, such as polyketide synthases, are of interest due to their use in unnatural-product or combinatorial biosynthesis (R. McDaniel, S. Ebert-Khosla, D. A. Hopwood, and C. Khosla, Science 262:1546-1557, 1993; T. Stachelhaus, A. Schneider, and M. A. Marahiel, Science 269:69-72, 1995). Most nonribosomal peptides from microorganisms are classified as secondary metabolites; that is, they rarely have a role in primary metabolism, growth, or reproduction but have evolved to somehow benefit the producing organisms. Cyanobacteria produce a myriad array of secondary metabolites, including alkaloids, polyketides, and nonribosomal peptides, some of which are potent toxins. This paper addresses the molecular genetic basis of nonribosomal peptide synthesis in diverse species of cyanobacteria. Amplification of peptide synthetase genes was achieved by use of degenerate primers directed to conserved functional motifs of these modular enzyme complexes. Specific detection of the gene cluster encoding the biosynthetic pathway of the cyanobacterial toxin microcystin was shown for both cultured and uncultured samples. Blot hybridizations, DNA amplifications, sequencing, and evolutionary analysis revealed a broad distribution of peptide synthetase gene orthologues in cyanobacteria. The results demonstrate a molecular approach to assessing preexpression microbial functional diversity in uncultured cyanobacteria. The nonribosomal peptide biosynthetic pathways detected may lead to the discovery and engineering of novel antibiotics, immunosuppressants, or antiviral agents.     

非核糖体肽合成酶的末端硫酯酶与多肽环化

非核糖体肽合成酶（nonribosomal peptide synthetases,NRPSs）能以多载体巯基化模板机制合成各种结构复杂、种类繁多的次生代谢非核糖体环肽.根据环肽末端环化的方式,可分为两大类：大环内酯型和内酰胺型.负责非核糖体环肽最终环化的硫酯酶（thioesterase,TE）属于α/β水解酶超家族.该家族包括：脂酶、蛋白酶、酯酶等,其共有特征是含有保守的催化三元件（Ser-His-Asp）,起到终止反应和释放产物的功能. TE具有区域定向性（regiospecific）、化学定向性（chemospecific）及立体定向性（stereospecific）的特点,在非核糖体肽（nonribosomal peptide,NRP）的合成反应中具有决定性作用,直接影响到最终环肽的生成. 同时,TE由于其特有的环化和水解的双重活性,在体外的线性多肽环化中越来越受到众多学者的关注. 综合国内外相关文献,本文着重从TE介导下的产物释放机制和影响因素两个方面综述非核糖体末端硫酯酶的研究进展及其应用.     

A mass spectrometry-guided genome mining approach for natural product peptidogenomics

Peptide natural products show broad biological properties and are commonly produced by orthogonal ribosomal and nonribosomal pathways in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. To harvest this large and diverse resource of bioactive molecules, we introduce here natural product peptidogenomics (NPP), a new MS-guided genome-mining method that connects the chemotypes of peptide natural products to their biosynthetic gene clusters by iteratively matching de novo tandem MS (MS(n)) structures to genomics-based structures following biosynthetic logic. In this study, we show that NPP enabled the rapid characterization of over ten chemically diverse ribosomal and nonribosomal peptide natural products of previously unidentified composition from Streptomycete bacteria as a proof of concept to begin automating the genome-mining process. We show the identification of lantipeptides, lasso peptides, linardins, formylated peptides and lipopeptides, many of which are from well-characterized model Streptomycetes, highlighting the power of NPP in the discovery of new peptide natural products from even intensely studied organisms.     

Engineered biosynthesis of the peptide antibiotic bacitracin in the surrogate host Bacillus subtilis.

Nonribosomal peptides are processed on multifunctional enzymes called nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), whose modular multidomain arrangement allowed the rational design of new peptide products. However, the lack of natural competence and efficient transformation methods for most of nonribosomal peptide producer strains prevented the in vivo manipulation of these biosynthetic gene clusters. In this study, we present methods for the construction of a genetically engineered Bacillus subtilis surrogate host for the integration and heterologous expression of foreign NRPS genes. In the B. subtilis surrogate host, we deleted the resident 26-kilobase srfA gene cluster encoding the surfactin synthetases and subsequently used the same chromosomal location for integration of the entire 49-kilobase bacitracin biosynthetic gene cluster from Bacillus licheniformis by a stepwise homologous recombination method. Synthesis of the branched cyclic peptide antibiotic bacitracin in the engineered B. subtilis strain was achieved at high level, indicating a functional production and proper posttranslational modification of the bacitracin synthetases BacABC, as well as the expression of the associated bacitracin self-resistance genes. This engineered and genetically amenable B. subtilis strain will facilitate the rational design of new bacitracin derivatives.     

Functional cross-talk between fatty acid synthesis and nonribosomal peptide synthesis in quinoxaline antibiotic-producing streptomycetes

Quinoxaline antibiotics are chromopeptide lactones embracing the two families of triostins and quinomycins, each having characteristic sulfur-containing cross-bridges. Interest in these compounds stems from their antineoplastic activities and their specific binding to DNA via bifunctional intercalation of the twin chromophores represented by quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid (QA). Enzymatic analysis of triostin A-producing Streptomyces triostinicus and quinomycin A-producing Streptomyces echinatus revealed four nonribosomal peptide synthetase modules for the assembly of the quinoxalinoyl tetrapeptide backbone of the quinoxaline antibiotics. The modules were contained in three protein fractions, referred to as triostin synthetases (TrsII, III, and IV). TrsII is a 245-kDa bimodular nonribosomal peptide synthetase activating as thioesters for both serine and alanine, the first two amino acids of the quinoxalinoyl tetrapeptide chain. TrsIII, represented by a protein of 250 kDa, activates cysteine as a thioester. TrsIV, an unstable protein of apparent Mr about 280,000, was identified by its ability to activate and N-methylate valine, the last amino acid. QA, the chromophore, was shown to be recruited by a free-standing adenylation domain, TrsI, in conjunction with a QA-binding protein, AcpPSE. Cloning of the gene for the QA-binding protein revealed that it is the fatty acyl carrier protein, AcpPSE, of the fatty acid synthase of S. echinatus and S. triostinicus. Analysis of the acylation reaction of AcpPSE by TrsI along with other A-domains and the aroyl carrier protein AcmACP from actinomycin biosynthesis revealed a specific requirement for AcpPSE in the activation and also in the condensation of QA with serine in the initiation step of QA tetrapeptide assembly on TrsII. These data show for the first time a functional interaction between nonribosomal peptide synthesis and fatty acid synthesis.     

Mutants of the zinc ligands of lacticin 481 synthetase retain dehydration activity but have impaired cyclization activity

Lantibiotics are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide antibiotics. The modifications involve dehydration of Ser and Thr residues to generate dehydroalanines and dehydrobutyrines, followed by intramolecular attack of cysteines onto the newly formed dehydro amino acids to produce cyclic thioethers. LctM performs both processes during the biosynthesis of lacticin 481. Mutation of the zinc ligands Cys781 and Cys836 to alanine did not affect the dehydration activity of LctM. However, these mutations compromised cyclization activity when investigated with full length or truncated peptide substrates. Mutation of His725, another residue that is fully conserved in lantibiotic cyclases, to Asn resulted in a protein that still catalyzed dehydration of the substrate peptide and also retained cyclization activity, but at a decreased level compared to that of the wild type enzyme. Collectively, these results show that the C-terminal domain of LctM is responsible for cyclization, that the zinc ligands are critical for cyclization, and that dehydration takes place independently from the cyclization activity. Furthermore, these mutant proteins are excellent dehydratases and provide useful tools to investigate the dehydration activity as well as generate dehydrated peptides for study of the cyclization reaction by wild type LctM.     

Solid-phase total synthesis and antimicrobial activities of loloatins A-D

The first total synthesis of the decapeptide antibiotics loloatins A-D (1-4), originally isolated from the marine bacterial isolate MK-PNG-276A, possibly in the genus Bacillus, was accomplished by solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), followed by 'head-to-tail' cyclization of the activated linear precursors, without protection of nucleophilic side-chain functions, on a safety-catch resin. The synthetic peptides were equally active as the natural products isolated from the bacterial source and found to possess similar bacterial selectivity as other members in the family of amphipathic antimicrobial cyclic decapeptides.     

Generality of peptide cyclization catalyzed by isolated thioesterase domains of nonribosomal peptide synthetases

The C-terminal thioesterase (TE) domains from nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) catalyze the final step in the biosynthesis of diverse biologically active molecules. In many systems, the thioesterase domain is involved in macrocyclization of a linear precursor presented as an acyl-S-enzyme intermediate. The excised thioesterase domain from the tyrocidine NRPS has been shown to catalyze the cyclization of a peptide thioester substrate which mimics its natural acyl-S-enzyme substrate. In this work we explore the generality of cyclization catalyzed by isolated TE domains. Using synthetic peptide thioester substrates from 6 to 14 residues in length, we show that the excised TE domain from the tyrocidine NRPS can be used to generate an array of sizes of cyclic peptides with comparable kinetic efficiency. We also studied the excised TE domains from the NRPSs which biosynthesize the symmetric cyclic decapeptide gramicidin S and the cyclic lipoheptapeptide surfactin A. Both TE domains exhibit expected cyclization activity: the TE domain from the gramicidin S NRPS catalyzes head-to-tail cyclization of a decapeptide thioester to form gramicidin S, and the TE domain from the surfactin NRPS catalyzes stereospecific cyclization to form a macrolactone analogue of surfactin. With an eye toward generating libraries of cyclic molecules by TE catalysis, we report the solid-phase synthesis and TE-mediated cyclization of a small pool of linear peptide thioesters. These studies provide evidence for the general utility of TE catalysis as a means to synthesize a wide range of macrocyclic compounds.     

Cyclization of backbone-substituted peptides catalyzed by the thioesterase domain from the tyrocidine nonribosomal peptide synthetase

The excised C-terminal thioesterase (TE) domain from the multidomain tyrocidine nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) was recently shown to catalyze head-to-tail cyclization of a decapeptide thioester to form the cyclic decapeptide antibiotic tyrocidine A [Trauger, J. W., Kohli, R. M., Mootz, H. D., Marahiel, M. A., and Walsh, C. T. (2000) Nature 407, 215-218]. The peptide thioester substrate was a mimic of the TE domain's natural, synthetase-bound substrate. We report here the synthesis of modified peptide thioester substrates in which parts of the peptide backbone are altered either by the replacement of three amino acid blocks with a flexible spacer or by replacement of individual amide bonds with ester bonds. Rates of TE domain catalyzed cyclization were determined for these substrates and compared with that of the wild-type substrate, revealing that some parts of the peptide backbone are important for cyclization, while other parts can be modified without significantly affecting the cyclization rate. We also report the synthesis of a modified substrate in which the N-terminal amino group of the wild-type substrate, which is the nucleophile in the cyclization reaction, is replaced with a hydroxyl group and show that this compound is cyclized by the TE domain to form a macrolactone at a rate comparable to that of the wild-type substrate. These results demonstrate that the TE domain from the tyrocidine NRPS can catalyze cyclization of depsipeptides and other backbone-substituted peptides and suggest that during the cyclization reaction the peptide substrate is preorganized for cyclization in the enzyme active site in part by intramolecular backbone hydrogen bonds analogous to those in the product tyrocidine A.     

基于非核糖体肽的文献计量分析

许多临床上的重要抗生素来源于微生物生产的非核糖体肽类天然产物或者聚酮-非核糖体肽杂合体类天然产物,本文选取了近5年Web of Science上关于非核糖体肽的国际期刊文献,采用文献计量、统计分析等方法展示非核糖体肽研究领域的热点方向,探究了该领域的发展趋势,以期为进一步研究提供参考。     

The 1.8 A crystal structure of PA2412, an MbtH-like protein from the pyoverdine cluster of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Many bacteria use nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) proteins to produce peptide antibiotics and siderophores. The catalytic domains of the NRPS proteins are usually linked in large multidomain proteins. Often, additional proteins are coexpressed with NRPS proteins that modify the NRPS peptide products, ensure the availability of substrate building blocks, or play a role in the import or export of the NRPS product. Many NRPS clusters include a small protein of approximately 80 amino acids with homology to the MbtH protein of mycobactin synthesis in Mycobacteria tuberculosis; no function has been assigned to these proteins. Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizes an NRPS cluster to synthesize the siderophore pyoverdine. The pyoverdine peptide contains a dihydroxyquinoline-based chromophore, as well as two formyl-N-hydroxyornithine residues, which are involved in iron binding. The pyoverdine cluster contains four modular NRPS enzymes and 10-15 additional proteins that are essential for pyoverdine production. Coexpressed with the pyoverdine synthetic enzymes is a 72-amino acid MbtH-like family member designated PA2412. We have determined the three-dimensional structure of the PA2412 protein and describe here the structure and the location of conserved regions. Additionally, we have further analyzed a deletion mutant of the PA2412 protein for growth and pyoverdine production. Our results demonstrate that PA2412 is necessary for the production or secretion of pyoverdine at normal levels. The PA2412 deletion strain is able to use exogenously produced pyoverdine, showing that there is no defect in the uptake or utilization of the iron-pyoverdine complex.     

A proteomic survey of nonribosomal peptide and polyketide biosynthesis in actinobacteria

Actinobacteria such as streptomycetes are renowned for their ability to produce bioactive natural products including nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) and polyketides (PKs). The advent of genome sequencing has revealed an even larger genetic repertoire for secondary metabolism with most of the small molecule products of these gene clusters still unknown. Here, we employed a "protein-first" method called PrISM (Proteomic Investigation of Secondary Metabolism) to screen 26 unsequenced actinomycetes using mass spectrometry-based proteomics for the targeted detection of expressed nonribosomal peptide synthetases or polyketide synthases. Improvements to the original PrISM screening approach (Nat. Biotechnol. 2009, 27, 951-956), for example, improved de novo peptide sequencing, have enabled the discovery of 10 NRPS/PKS gene clusters from 6 strains. Taking advantage of the concurrence of biosynthetic enzymes and the secondary metabolites they generate, two natural products were associated with their previously "orphan" gene clusters. This work has demonstrated the feasibility of a proteomics-based strategy for use in screening for NRP/PK production in actinomycetes (often >8 Mbp, high GC genomes) versus the bacilli (2-4 Mbp genomes) used previously.