Publications (269) View all
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Article: Short Pathways to Complexity Generation: Fungal Peptidyl Alkaloid Multicyclic Scaffolds from Anthranilate Building Blocks.
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ABSTRACT: Complexity generation in naturally occurring peptide scaffolds can occur either by posttranslational modifications of nascent ribosomal proteins or through post assembly line tailoring of nonribosomal peptides. Short enzymatic pathways utilizing bimodular and trimodular nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) assembly lines, followed by tailoring acyltransferases, oxygenases and/or prenyltransferases, efficiently construct complex fungal peptidyl alkaloid scaffolds in Aspergilli, Neosartorya and Penicillium species. Use of the nonproteinogenic amino acid anthranilate both as chain-initiating building block and chain-terminating intramolecular nucleophile efficiently leads to a variety of peptidyl alkaloid scaffolds with two to seven fused rings.ACS Chemical Biology 05/2013; · 6.45 Impact Factor -
Article: The posttranslational modification cascade to the thiopeptide berninamycin generates linear forms and altered macrocyclic scaffolds.
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ABSTRACT: Berninamycin is a member of the pyridine-containing thiopeptide class of antibiotics that undergoes massive posttranslational modifications from ribosomally generated preproteins. Berninamycin has a 2-oxazolyl-3-thiazolyl-pyridine core embedded in a 35-atom macrocycle rather than typical trithiazolylpyridine cores embedded in 26-atom and 29-atom peptide macrocycles. We describe the cloning of an 11-gene berninamycin cluster from Streptomyces bernensis UC 5144, its heterologous expression in Streptomyces lividans TK24 and Streptomyces venezuelae ATCC 10712, and detection of variant and incompletely processed scaffolds. Posttranslational maturation in S. lividans of both the wild-type berninamycin prepeptide (BerA) and also a T3A mutant generates macrocyclic compounds as well as linear variants, which have failed to form the pyridine and the macrocycle. Expression of the gene cluster in S. venezuelae generates a variant of the 35-atom skeleton of berninamycin, containing a methyloxazoline in the place of a methyloxazole within the macrocyclic framework.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 05/2013; · 9.68 Impact Factor -
Article: EcdGHK are Three Tailoring Iron Oxygenases for Amino Acid Building Blocks of the Echinocandin Scaffold.
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ABSTRACT: The echinocandins are a small group of fungal N-acylated cyclic hexapeptides that are fungicidal for candida strains and fungistatic for aspergilli by targeting cell wall 1,3-β-glucan synthases. The side chains of all six amino acid building blocks have hydroxyl groups, including the nonproteinogenic 4R,5R-dihydroxy-Orn1, 4R-OH-Pro3, 3S, 4S-dihydroxy homoTyr4 and 3S-OH-4S-Me-Pro6. The echinocandin (ecd) gene cluster contains two predicted nonheme mononuclear iron oxygenase genes (ecdG,K) and one encoding a P450 type heme protein (ecdH). Deletion of the ecdH gene in the producing Emericella rugulosa generates an echinocandin scaffold (echinocandin D) lacking both hydroxyl groups on Orn1. Correspondingly, the ΔecdG strain failed to hydroxylate C3 of the homoTyr residue, and purified EcdG hydroxylated free L-homoTyr at C3. The ΔecdK strain failed to generate mature echinocandin unless supplemented with either 4-Me-Pro or 3-OH-4-Me-Pro, indicating blockage of a step upstream of MePro formation. Purified EcdK is a Leu 5-hydroxylase, acting iteratively at C5 to yield γ-Me-Glu-γ-semialdehydein equilibrium with the cyclic imine product. Evaluation of deshydroxyechinocandin scaffolds in in vitro anticandidal assays revealed up to 5 fold loss of potency for the ΔecdG scaffolds, but a 3-fold gain of potency for the ΔecdH scaffold, in line with prior results on deoxyechinocandin homologs.Journal of the American Chemical Society 02/2013; · 9.91 Impact Factor -
Article: Complexity generation in fungal peptidyl alkaloid biosynthesis: a two-enzyme pathway to the hexacyclic MDR export pump inhibitor ardeemin.
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ABSTRACT: Ardeemins are hexacyclic peptidyl alkaloids isolated from Aspergillus fischeri as agents that block efflux of anticancer drugs by (MultiDrug Resistance) MDR export pumps. To evaluate the biosynthetic logic and enzymatic machinery for ardeemin framework assembly, we sequenced the A. fischeri genome and identified the ardABC gene cluster. Through both genetic deletions and biochemical characterizations of purified ArdA and ArdB we show this ArdAB enzyme pair is sufficient to convert anthranilate (Ant), L-Ala and L-Trp to ardeemin. ArdA is a 430 kDa trimodular nonribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS) that converts the three building blocks into a fumiquinazoline (FQ) regioisomer termed ardeemin FQ. ArdB is a prenyltransferase that takes tricyclic ardeemin FQ and dimethylally diphosphate to the hexacyclic ardeemin scaffold via prenylation at C2 of the Trp-derived indole moiety with intramolecular capture by an amide NH of the fumiquinazoline ring. The two-enzyme ArdAB pathway reveals remarkable efficiency in construction of the hexacyclic peptidyl alkaloid scaffold.ACS Chemical Biology 01/2013; · 6.45 Impact Factor -
Article: Codon randomization for rapid exploration of chemical space in thiopeptide antibiotic variants.
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ABSTRACT: Thiopeptide antibiotics exhibit a profound level of chemical diversity that is installed through cascades of posttranslational modifications on ribosomal peptides. Here, we present a technique to rapidly explore the chemical space of the thiopeptide GE37468 through codon randomization, yielding insights into thiopeptide maturation as well as structure and activity relationships. In this incarnation of the methodology, we randomized seven residues of the prepeptide-coding region, enabling the generation of 133 potential thiopeptide variants. Variant libraries were subsequently queried in two ways. First, high-throughput MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry was applied to colony-level expressions to sample mutants that permitted full maturation of the antibiotic. Second, the activity of producing mutants was detected in an antibiotic overlay assay. In total, 29 of the 133 variants produced mature compound, 12 of which retained antibiotic activity and 1 that had improved activity.Chemistry & biology 12/2012; 19(12):1600-10. · 6.52 Impact Factor
