A novel docking domain interface model predicting recombination between homoeologous modular biosynthetic gene clusters

An in silico model for homoeologous recombination between gene clusters encoding modular polyketide synthases (PKS) or non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) was developed. This model was used to analyze recombination between 12 PKS clusters from Streptomyces species and related genera to predict if new clusters might give rise to new products. In many cases, there were only a limited number of recombination sites (about 13 per cluster pair), suggesting that recombination may pose constraints on the evolution of PKS clusters. Most recombination events occurred between pairs of ketosynthase (KS) domains, allowing the biosynthetic outcome of the recombinant modules to be predicted. About 30% of recombinants were predicted to produce polyketides. Four NRPS clusters from Streptomyces strains were also used for in silico recombination. They yielded a comparable number of recombinants to PKS clusters, but the adenylation (A) domains contained the largest proportion of recombination events; this might be a mechanism for producing new substrate specificities. The extreme G + C-content, the presence of linear chromosomes and plasmids, as well as the lack of a mutSL-mismatch repair system should favor production of recombinants in Streptomyces species.     

Computational approach for prediction of domain organization and substrate specificity of modular polyketide synthases

Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are large multi-enzymatic, multi-domain megasynthases, which are involved in the biosynthesis of a class of pharmaceutically important natural products, namely polyketides. These enzymes harbor a set of repetitive active sites termed modules and the domains present in each module dictate the chemical moiety that would add to a growing polyketide chain. This modular logic of biosynthesis has been exploited with reasonable success to produce several novel compounds by genetic manipulation. However, for harnessing their vast potential of combinatorial biosynthesis, it is essential to develop knowledge based in silico approaches for correlating the sequence and domain organization of PKSs to their polyketide products. In this work, we have carried out extensive sequence analysis of experimentally characterized PKS clusters to develop an automated computational protocol for unambiguous identification of various PKS domains in a polypeptide sequence. A structure based approach has been used to identify the putative active site residues of acyltransferase (AT) domains, which control the specificities for various starter and extender units during polyketide biosynthesis. On the basis of the analysis of the active site residues and molecular modelling of substrates in the active site of representative AT domains, we have identified a crucial residue that is likely to play a major role in discriminating between malonate and methylmalonate during selection of extender groups by this domain. Structural modelling has also explained the experimentally observed chiral preference of AT domain in substrate selection. This computational protocol has been used to predict the domain organization and substrate specificity for PKS clusters from various microbial genomes. The results of our analysis as well as the computational tools for prediction of domain organization and substrate specificity have been organized in the form of a searchable computerized database (PKSDB). PKSDB would serve as a valuable tool for identification of polyketide products biosynthesized by uncharacterized PKS clusters. This database can also provide guidelines for rational design of experiments to engineer novel polyketides.     

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。     

Biosynthesis of Polyketide Antibiotics by Various StreptomycesSpecies that Produce Actinomycins

A collection of actinomycin-producing Streptomycesstrains, their variants with different levels of antibiotic biosynthesis, and recombinant strains were screened in order to select new strains that produce polyketide antibiotics. Screening with the use of the cloned actgene encoding a component of actinorhodin polyketide synthase (PKS) multienzyme complex from Streptomyces coelicolorrevealed that many strains tested can synthesize polyketide antibiotics along with actinomycins. A relationship between the biosynthetic pathways of actinomycins and polyketides is discussed.     

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.     

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.     

Engineered polyketide biosynthesis and biocatalysis in Escherichia coli

Polyketides are important bioactive natural products biosynthesized by bacteria, fungi, and plants. The enzymes that synthesize polyketides are collectively referred to as polyketide synthases (PKSs). Because many of the natural hosts that produce polyketides are difficult to culture or manipulate, establishing a universal heterologous host that is genetically tractable has become an important goal toward the engineered biosynthesis of polyketides and analogues. Here, we summarize the recent progresses in engineering Escherichia coli as a heterologous host for reconstituting PKSs of different types. Our increased understanding of PKS enzymology and structural biology, combined with new tools in protein engineering, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology, has firmly established E. coli as a powerful host for producing polyketides.     

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.     

Quorum sensing-based metabolic engineering of the precursor supply in Streptomyces coelicolor to improve heterologous production of neoaureothin

Streptomyces are important industrial bacteria that produce pharmaceutically valuable polyketides. However, mass production on an industrial scale is limited by low productivity, which can be overcome through metabolic engineering and the synthetic biology of the host strain. Recently, the introduction of an auto-inducible expression system depending on microbial physiological state has been suggested as an important tool for the industrial-scale production of polyketides. In this study, titer improvement by enhancing the pool of CoA-derived precursors required for polyketide production was driven in a quorum sensing (QS)-dependent manner. A self-sustaining and inducer-independent regulatory system, named the QS-based metabolic engineering of precursor pool (QMP) system, was constructed, wherein the expression of genes involved in precursor biosynthesis was regulated by the QS-responsive promoter, scbAp. The QMP system was applied for neoaureothin production in a heterologous host, Streptomyces coelicolor M1152, and productivity increased by up to 4-fold. In particular, the engineered hyperproducers produced high levels of neoaureothin without adversely affecting cell growth. Overall, this study showed that self-regulated metabolic engineering mediated by QS has the potential to engineer strains for polyketide titer improvement.     

Targeting polyketide synthase gene pool within actinomycetes: new degenerate primers

Natural products provide a unique element of molecular diversity and biological functionality and they are still indispensable for drug discovery. The polyketides, comprising a large and structurally diverse family of bioactive natural products, have been isolated from a group of mycelia-forming Gram-positive microorganisms, the actinomycetes. Relatively high amino acid sequence identity of the actinomycetes type I polyketide synthases (PKSs) was used to design three degenerate primer pairs for homology-based PCR detection of novel PKS genes, with particular interest into PKSs involved in biosynthesis of immunosuppressive-like metabolites. The stepdown PCR method, described here, enables fast insight into the PKS arsenal within actinomycetes. Designed primers and stepdown PCR were applied for the analysis of two natural isolates, Streptomyces sp. strains NP13 and MS405. Sequence analysis of chosen clones revealed the presence of two distinctive sequences in strain Streptomyces sp. NP13, but only one of these showed homology to PKS-related sequences. On analysing PCR amplicons derived from Streptomyces sp. strain MS405, three different PKS-related sequences were identified demonstrating a potential of designed primers to target PKS gene pool within single organism.     

Chimeric 6-methylsalicylic acid synthase with domains of acyl carrier protein and methyltransferase from Pseudallescheria boydii shows novel biosynthetic activity

Polyketides are important secondary metabolites, many of which exhibit potent pharmacological applications. Biosynthesis of polyketides is carried out by a single polyketide synthase (PKS) or multiple PKSs in successive elongations of enzyme-bound intermediates related to fatty acid biosynthesis. The polyketide gene PKS306 from Pseudallescheria boydii NTOU2362 containing domains of ketosynthase (KS), acyltransferase (AT), dehydratase (DH), acyl carrier protein (ACP) and methyltransferase (MT) was cloned in an attempt to produce novel chemical compounds, and this PKS harbouring green fluorescent protein (GFP) was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although fluorescence of GFP and fusion protein analysed by anti-GFP antibody were observed, no novel compound was detected. 6-methylsalicylic acid synthase (6MSAS) was then used as a template and engineered with PKS306 by combinatorial fusion. The chimeric PKS containing domains of KS, AT, DH and ketoreductase (KR) from 6MSAS with ACP and MT from PKS306 demonstrated biosynthesis of a novel compound. The compound was identified with a deduced chemical formula of C₇H₁₀O₃, and the chemical structure was named as 2-hydroxy-2-(propan-2-yl) cyclobutane-1,3-dione. The novel compound synthesized by the chimeric PKS in this study demonstrates the feasibility of combinatorial fusion of PKS genes to produce novel polyketides.     

Characterization of two novel non-reducing polyketide synthase genes from the lichen-forming fungus Hypogymnia physodes

Lichens are known to produce a variety of secondary metabolites including polyketides, which have valuable biological activities. Some polyketides are produced solely by lichens. The biosynthesis of these compounds is primarily governed by iterative type I polyketide synthases. Hypogymnia physodes synthesize polyketides such as physodic, physodalic and hydroxyphysodic acid and atranorin, which are non-reducing polyketides. Two novel non-reducing polyketide synthase (PKS) genes were isolated from a fosmid genomic library of a mycobiont of H. physodes using a 409bp fragment corresponding to part of the reductase (R) domain as a probe. H. physodes PKS1 (Hyopks1) and PKS2 (Hypopks2) contain keto synthase (KS), acyl transferase (AT), acyl carrier protein (ACP), methyl transferase (ME) and R domains. Classification based on phylogeny analysis using the translated KS and AT domains demonstrated that Hypopks1 and Hypopks2 are members of the fungal non-reducing PKSs clade III. This is the first report of non-reducing PKSs containing the R domain-mediated release mechanisms in lichens, which are also rare fungal type I PKS in non-lichenized filamentous fungi.     

链霉菌中高效生产聚酮化合物的研究方法及进展北大核心CSCD

聚酮化合物是通过聚酮合成途径产生的一大类结构和生物活性多样的次级代谢产物,是链霉菌产生的主要次级代谢产物,具有重要的经济价值。为了在链霉菌中提高聚酮化合物产量,以满足工业生产需求,近年来,代谢工程的方法被广泛应用,例如,过表达合成途径中限速酶或途径特异性激活蛋白、强化前体供应、去除产物反馈抑制、合成基因簇异源表达等。本文将从代谢工程改造实例入手,全面综述链霉菌中聚酮化合物高效生物合成的研究方法及进展,并对利用合成生物学策略智能动态适配各个相关途径,进而提高该类化合物产量的研究思路进行展望。     

Exploiting the mosaic structure of trans-acyltransferase polyketide synthases for natural product discovery and pathway dissection

Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are giant bacterial enzymes that synthesize many polyketides of therapeutic value. In contrast to PKSs that provide acyltransferase (AT) activities in cis, trans-AT PKSs lack integrated AT domains and exhibit unusual enzymatic features with poorly understood functions in polyketide assembly. This has retarded insight into the assembly of products such as mupirocin, leinamycin and bryostatin 1. We show that trans-AT PKSs evolved in a fundamentally different fashion from cis-AT systems, through horizontal recruitment and assembly of substrate-specific ketosynthase (KS) domains. The insights obtained from analysis of these KS mosaics will facilitate both the discovery of novel polyketides by genome mining, as we demonstrate for the thailandamides of Burkholderia thailandensis, and the extraction of chemical information from short trans-AT PCR products, as we show using metagenomic DNA of marine sponges. Our data also suggest new strategies for dissecting polyketide biosynthetic pathways and engineering polyketide assembly.     

真菌聚酮化合物生物合成研究进展

具有广泛生物活性的真菌聚酮化合物因具有复杂的化学结构,其生物合成途径一般包含多样且新颖的酶催化反应。文中主要综述了2013-2016年来源于还原性聚酮合成酶(HR-PKSs)、非还原性聚酮合成酶(NR-PKSs)、聚酮-非核糖体多肽合成酶(PKS-NRPSs)和还原性-非还原性聚酮合成酶(HR-NR PKSs)杂合型等四大类型的真菌聚酮类化合物的生物合成研究进展。众多真菌聚酮类化合物生物机理的阐明,为未来新型真菌聚酮类天然产物生物合成基因簇的挖掘、新结构化合物的发现及其类似物的研究提供了方向和理论基础。     

Metabolically engineered Escherichia coli for efficient production of glycosylated natural products

Significant achievements in polyketide gene expression have made Escherichia coli one of the most promising hosts for the heterologous production of pharmacologically important polyketides. However, attempts to produce glycosylated polyketides, by the expression of heterologous sugar pathways, have been hampered until now by the low levels of glycosylated compounds produced by the recombinant hosts. By carrying out metabolic engineering of three endogenous pathways that lead to the synthesis of TDP sugars in E. coli, we have greatly improved the intracellular levels of the common deoxysugar intermediate TDP‐4‐keto‐6‐deoxyglucose resulting in increased production of the heterologous sugars TDP‐L‐mycarose and TDP‐d ‐desosamine, both components of medically important polyketides. Bioconversion experiments carried out by feeding 6‐deoxyerythronolide B (6‐dEB) or 3‐α‐mycarosylerythronolide B (MEB) demonstrated that the genetically modified E. coli B strain was able to produce 60‐ and 25‐fold more erythromycin D (EryD) than the original strain K207‐3, respectively. Moreover, the additional knockout of the multidrug efflux pump AcrAB further improved the ability of the engineered strain to produce these glycosylated compounds. These results open the possibility of using E. coli as a generic host for the industrial scale production of glycosylated polyketides, and to combine the polyketide and deoxysugar combinatorial approaches with suitable glycosyltransferases to yield massive libraries of novel compounds with variations in both the aglycone and the tailoring sugars.