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ABSTRACT: Bacteria develop resistance to many classes of antibiotics vertically, by engendering mutations in genes encoding transcriptional and translational apparatus. These severe adaptations affect global transcription, translation, and the correspondingly affected metabolism. Here, we characterize metabolome scale changes in transcriptional and translational mutants in a genomically characterized Nocardiopsis, a soil-derived actinomycete, in stationary phase. Analysis of ultra-performance liquid chromatography-ion mobility-mass spectrometry metabolomic features from a cohort of streptomycin- and rifampicin-resistant mutants grown in the absence of antibiotics exhibits clear metabolomic speciation, and loadings analysis catalogs a marked change in metabolic phenotype. Consistent with derepression, up to 311 features are observed in antibiotic-resistant mutants that are not detected in their progenitors. Mutants demonstrate changes in primary metabolism, such as modulation of fatty acid composition and the increased production of the osmoprotectant ectoine, in addition to the presence of abundant emergent potential secondary metabolites. Isolation of three of these metabolites followed by structure elucidation demonstrates them to be an unusual polyketide family with a previously uncharacterized xanthene framework resulting from sequential oxidative carbon skeletal rearrangements. Designated as "mutaxanthenes," this family can be correlated to a type II polyketide gene cluster in the producing organism. Taken together, these data suggest that biosynthetic pathway derepression is a general consequence of some antibiotic resistance mutations.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 01/2013; · 9.68 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Prokaryotic phosphopentomutases (PPMs) are di-Mn(2+) enzymes that catalyze the interconversion of α-D-ribose 5-phosphate and α-D-ribose 1-phosphate at an active site located between two independently folded domains. These prokaryotic PPMs belong to the alkaline phosphatase superfamily, but previous studies of Bacillus cereus PPM suggested adaptations of the conserved alkaline phosphatase catalytic cycle. Notably, B. cereus PPM engages substrates when the active site nucleophile, Thr-85, is phosphorylated. Further, the phosphoenzyme is stable throughout purification and crystallization. In contrast, alkaline phosphatase engages substrates when the active site nucleophile is dephosphorylated, and the phosphoenzyme reaction intermediate is only stably trapped in a catalytically compromised enzyme. Studies were undertaken to understand the divergence of these mechanisms. Crystallographic and biochemical investigations of the PPM(T85E) phosphomimetic variant and the neutral corollary PPM(T85Q) determined that the side chain of Lys-240 underwent a change in conformation in response to active site charge, which modestly influenced the affinity for the small molecule activator α-D-glucose 1,6-bisphosphate. More strikingly, the structure of unphosphorylated B. cereus PPM revealed a dramatic change in the interdomain angle and a new hydrogen bonding interaction between the side chain of Asp-156 and the active site nucleophile, Thr-85. This hydrogen bonding interaction is predicted to align and activate Thr-85 for nucleophilic addition to α-D-glucose 1,6-bisphosphate, favoring the observed equilibrium phosphorylated state. Indeed, phosphorylation of Thr-85 is severely impaired in the PPM(D156A) variant even under stringent activation conditions. These results permit a proposal for activation of PPM and explain some of the essential features that distinguish between the catalytic cycles of PPM and alkaline phosphatase.
Biochemistry 03/2012; 51(9):1964-75. · 3.42 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A significant challenge in natural product discovery is the initial discrimination of discrete secondary metabolites alongside functionally similar primary metabolic cellular components within complex biological samples. A property that has yet to be fully exploited for natural product identification and characterization is the gas-phase collision cross section, or, more generally, the mobility-mass correlation. Peptide natural products possess many of the properties that distinguish natural products, as they are frequently characterized by a high degree of intramolecular bonding and possess extended and compact conformations among other structural modifications. This report describes a rapid structural mass spectrometry technique based on ion mobility-mass spectrometry for the comparison of peptide natural products to their primary metabolic congeners using mobility-mass correlation. This property is empirically determined using ion mobility-mass spectrometry, applied to the analysis of linear versus modified peptides, and used to discriminate peptide natural products in a crude microbial extract. Complementary computational approaches are utilized to understand the structural basis for the separation of primary metabolism derived linear peptides from secondary metabolite cyclic and modified cyclic species. These findings provide a platform for enhancing the identification of secondary metabolic peptides with distinct mobility-mass ratios within complex biological samples.
Journal of Natural Products 01/2012; 75(1):48-53. · 3.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The apoptolidins are 20/21-membered macrolides produced by Nocardiopsis sp. FU40. Several members of this family are potent and remarkably selective inducers of apoptosis in cancer cell lines, likely via a distinct mitochondria associated target. To investigate the biosynthesis of this natural product, the complete genome of the apoptolidin producer Nocardiopsis sp. FU40 was sequenced and a 116 Kb region was identified containing a putative apoptolidin biosynthetic gene cluster. The apoptolidin gene cluster comprises a type I polyketide synthase, with 13 homologating modules, apparently initiated in an unprecedented fashion via transfer from a methoxymalonyl-acyl carrier protein loading module. Spanning approximately 39 open reading frames, the gene cluster was cloned into a series of overlapping cosmids and functionally validated by targeted gene disruption experiments in the producing organism. Disruption of putative PKS and P(450) genes delineated the roles of these genes in apoptolidin biosynthesis and chemical complementation studies demonstrated intact biosynthesis peripheral to the disrupted genes. This work provides insight into details of the biosynthesis of this biologically significant natural product and provides a basis for future mutasynthetic methods for the generation of non-natural apopotolidins.
Tetrahedron 09/2011; 67(35):6568-6575. · 3.03 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: To address the synthesis of increasingly structurally diverse small-molecule drugs, methods for the generation of efficient and selective biological catalysts are becoming increasingly important. 'Directed evolution' is an umbrella term referring to a variety of methods for improving or altering the function of enzymes using a nature-inspired twofold strategy of mutagenesis followed by selection. This article provides an objective assessment of the effectiveness of directed evolution campaigns in generating enzymes with improved catalytic parameters for new substrates from the last decade, excluding studies that aimed to select for only improved physical properties and those that lack kinetic characterization. An analysis of the trends of methodologies and their success rates from 81 qualifying examples in the literature reveals the average fold improvement for k (cat) (or V (max)), K (m) and k (cat)/K (m) to be 366-, 12- and 2548-fold, respectively, whereas the median fold improvements are 5.4, 3 and 15.6. Further analysis by enzyme class, library-generation methodology and screening methodology explores relationships between successful campaigns and the methodologies employed.
Future medicinal chemistry 05/2011; 3(7):809-19. · 2.52 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Bacterial phosphopentomutases (PPMs) are alkaline phosphatase superfamily members that interconvert α-D-ribose 5-phosphate (ribose 5-phosphate) and α-D-ribose 1-phosphate (ribose 1-phosphate). We investigated the reaction mechanism of Bacillus cereus PPM using a combination of structural and biochemical studies. Four high resolution crystal structures of B. cereus PPM revealed the active site architecture, identified binding sites for the substrate ribose 5-phosphate and the activator α-D-glucose 1,6-bisphosphate (glucose 1,6-bisphosphate), and demonstrated that glucose 1,6-bisphosphate increased phosphorylation of the active site residue Thr-85. The phosphorylation of Thr-85 was confirmed by Western and mass spectroscopic analyses. Biochemical assays identified Mn(2+)-dependent enzyme turnover and demonstrated that glucose 1,6-bisphosphate treatment increases enzyme activity. These results suggest that protein phosphorylation activates the enzyme, which supports an intermolecular transferase mechanism. We confirmed intermolecular phosphoryl transfer using an isotope relay assay in which PPM reactions containing mixtures of ribose 5-[(18)O(3)]phosphate and [U-(13)C(5)]ribose 5-phosphate were analyzed by mass spectrometry. This intermolecular phosphoryl transfer is seemingly counter to what is anticipated from phosphomutases employing a general alkaline phosphatase reaction mechanism, which are reported to catalyze intramolecular phosphoryl transfer. However, the two mechanisms may be reconciled if substrate encounters the enzyme at a different point in the catalytic cycle.
Journal of Biological Chemistry 12/2010; 286(10):8043-54. · 4.77 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Everninomicin is a highly modified octasaccharide that belongs to the orthosomycin family of antibiotics and possesses potent Gram-positive antibiotic activity, including broad-spectrum efficacy against multidrug resistant enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus. Among its distinctive structural features is a nitro sugar, l-evernitrose, analogues of which decorate a variety of natural products. Recently, we identified a nitrososynthase enzyme encoded by orf36 from Micromonospora carbonacea var. africana that mediates the flavin-dependent double oxidation of synthetically generated thymidine diphosphate (TDP)-l-epi-vancosamine to the corresponding nitroso sugar. Herein, we utilize a five-enzyme in vitro pathway both to verify that ORF36 catalyzes oxidation of biogenic TDP-l-epi-vancosamine and to determine whether ORF36 exhibits catalytic competence for any of its biosynthetic progenitors, which are candidate substrates for nitrososynthases in vivo. Progenitors solely undergo single-oxidation reactions and terminate in the hydroxylamine oxidation state. Performing the in vitro reactions in the presence of (18)O(2) establishes that molecular oxygen, rather than oxygen from water, is incorporated into ORF36-generated intermediates and products and identifies an off-pathway product that correlates with the oxidation product of a progenitor substrate. The 3.15 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of ORF36 reveals a tetrameric enzyme that shares a fold with acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and class D flavin-containing monooxygenases, including the nitrososynthase KijD3. However, ORF36 and KijD3 have unusually open active sites in comparison to these related enzymes. Taken together, these studies map substrate determinants and allow the proposal of a minimal monooxygenase mechanism for amino sugar oxidation by ORF36.
Biochemistry 11/2010; 49(43):9306-17. · 3.42 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) catalyzes the synthesis and phosphorolysis of purine nucleosides, interconverting nucleosides with their corresponding purine base and ribose-1-phosphate. While PNP plays significant roles in human and pathogen physiology, we are interested in developing PNP as a catalyst for the formation of nucleoside analog drugs of clinical relevance. Towards this aim, we describe the engineering of human PNP to accept 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (ddI, Videx((R))) as a substrate for phosphorolysis using a combination of site-directed mutagenesis and directed evolution. In human PNP, we identified a single amino acid, Tyr-88, as a likely modulator of ribose selectivity. RosettaLigand was employed to calculate binding energies for substrate and substrate analog transition state complexes for single mutants of PNP where Tyr-88 was replaced with another amino acid. In parallel, these mutants were generated by site-directed mutagenesis, expressed and purified. A tyrosine to phenylalanine mutant (Y88F) was predicted by Rosetta to improve PNP catalytic activity with respect to ddI. Kinetic characterization of this mutant determined a 9-fold improvement in k(cat) and greater than 2-fold reduction in K(M). Subsequently, we used directed evolution to select for improved variants of PNP-Y88F in Escherichia coli cell extracts resulting in an additional 3-fold improvement over the progenitor strain. The engineered PNP may form the basis for catalysts and pathways for the biosynthesis of ddI.
Protein Engineering Design and Selection 08/2010; 23(8):607-16. · 2.94 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE, a zinc dependent dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase) is a major target of drugs due to its role in the modulation of blood pressure and cardiovascular disorders. Here we present a crystal structure of AnCE (an ACE homologue from Drosophila melanogaster with a single enzymatic domain) in complex with a natural product-phosphonotripeptide, K-26 at 1.96A resolution. The inhibitor binds exclusively in the S(1) and S(2) binding pockets of AnCE (coordinating the zinc ion) through ionic and hydrogen bond interactions. A detailed structural comparison of AnCE.K-26 complex with individual domains of human somatic ACE provides useful information for further exploration of ACE inhibitor pharmacophores involving phosphonic acids.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 07/2010; 398(3):532-6. · 2.48 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The isolation, characterization, and cytotoxicity against H292 cells of apoptolidin G are reported. Apoptolidin G is shown to be derived by a light-induced isomerization of the C2-C3 carbon-carbon double bond of apoptolidin A.
Organic Letters 07/2010; 12(13):2944-7. · 5.86 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Phosphopentomutases (PPMs) interconvert D-ribose 5-phosphate and alpha-D-ribose 1-phosphate to link glucose and nucleotide metabolism. PPM from Bacillus cereus was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified to homogeneity and crystallized. Bacterial PPMs are predicted to contain a di-metal reaction center, but the catalytically relevant metal has not previously been identified. Sparse-matrix crystallization screening was performed in the presence or absence of 50 mM MnCl(2). This strategy resulted in the formation of two crystal forms from two chemically distinct conditions. The crystals that formed with 50 mM MnCl(2) were more easily manipulated and diffracted to higher resolution. These results suggest that even if the catalytically relevant metal is not known, the crystallization of putative metalloproteins may still benefit from supplementation of the crystallization screens with potential catalytic metals.
Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications 07/2010; 66(Pt 7):811-4. · 0.51 Impact Factor
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Brian O Bachmann
Nature Chemical Biology 06/2010; 6(6):390-3. · 14.69 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Plasmodium falciparum, in addition to scavenging essential fatty acids from its intra- and intercellular environments, possesses a functional complement of type II fatty acid synthase (FAS) enzymes targeted to the apicoplast organelle. Recent evidence suggests that products of the plasmodial FAS II system may be critical for the parasite's liver-to-blood cycle transition, and it has been speculated that endogenously generated fatty acids may be precursors for essential cofactors, such as lipoate, in the apicoplast. beta-Ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) synthase III (pfKASIII or FabH) is one of the key enzymes in the initiating steps of the FAS II pathway, possessing two functions in P. falciparum: the decarboxylative thio-Claisen condensation of malonyl-ACP and various acyl coenzymes A (acyl-CoAs; KAS activity) and the acetyl-CoA:ACP transacylase reaction (ACAT). Here, we report the generation and characterization of a hybrid Lactococcus lactis strain that translates pfKASIII instead of L. lactis fabH to initiate fatty acid biosynthesis. The L. lactis expression vector pMG36e was modified for the efficient overexpression of the plasmodial gene in L. lactis. Transcriptional analysis indicated high-efficiency overexpression, and biochemical KAS and ACAT assays confirm these activities in cell extracts. Phenotypically, the L. lactis strain expressing pfKASIII has a growth rate and fatty acid profiles that are comparable to those of the strain complemented with its endogenous gene, suggesting that pfKASIII can use L. lactis ACP as substrate and perform near-normal function in L. lactis cells. This strain may have potential application as a bacterial model for pfKASIII inhibitor prescreening.
Applied and environmental microbiology 04/2010; 76(12):3959-66. · 3.69 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The growing drug resistance of Plasmodia spp. to current antimalarial agents in the quinine and artemisinin families further asserts the need for novel drug classes to combat malaria infection. One approach to the discovery of new antimalarials is the screening of natural product extracts for activity against the formation of hemozoin, a biomineral essential to parasite survival. By mimicking the in vivo lipid-water interface at which native hemozoin is found, hemozoin can be synthesized outside the parasite. In this work, a variety of lipophilic mediators was used to determine the optimal platform for in vitro hemozoin formation and then tested for efficacy in preliminary screens containing crude natural product extracts. The complete optimization and validation of a NP-40 detergent-mediated assay provide a screening template with an expedited 4-hour incubation time and identical IC50 values to those measured from the parasite's native lipid component.
Combinatorial chemistry & high throughput screening 03/2010; 13(3):285-92. · 2.46 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Enzymatic haem catabolism by haem oxygenases is conserved from bacteria to humans and proceeds through a common mechanism leading to the formation of iron, carbon monoxide and biliverdin. The first members of a novel class of haem oxygenases were recently identified in Staphylococcus aureus (IsdG and IsdI) and were termed the IsdG-family of haem oxygenases. Enzymes of the IsdG-family form tertiary structures distinct from those of the canonical haem oxygenase family, suggesting that IsdG-family members degrade haem via a unique reaction mechanism. Herein we report that the IsdG-family of haem oxygenases degrade haem to the oxo-bilirubin chromophore staphylobilin. We also present the crystal structure of haem-bound IsdI in which haem ruffling and constrained binding of oxygen is consistent with cleavage of the porphyrin ring at the beta- or delta-meso carbons. Combined, these data establish that the IsdG-family of haem oxygenases degrades haem to a novel chromophore distinct from biliverdin.
Molecular Microbiology 02/2010; 75(6):1529-38. · 5.01 Impact Factor
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ChemBioChem 11/2009; 11(1):67-70. · 3.94 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Glycosylation of a synthetic aglycone using precursor-directed biosynthesis is facilitated by a chemical ketosynthase "knockdown" of the apoptolidin producer Nocardiopsis sp. This synthetic approach facilitated the preparation of an unnatural disaccharide derivative of apoptolidin D that substantially restores cytotoxicity against H292 cells and deconvolutes the role of the decorating sugars in apoptolidin bioactivity.
Organic Letters 07/2009; 11(14):3032-4. · 5.86 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We present here a rapid, highly sensitive nonradioactive assay for adenylation enzyme selectivity determination and characterization. This method measures the isotopic back exchange of unlabeled pyrophosphate into gamma-(18)O(4)-labeled ATP via matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MS), electrospray ionization liquid chromatography MS, or electrospray ionization liquid chromatography-tandem MS and is demonstrated for both nonribosomal (TycA, ValA) and ribosomal synthetases (TrpRS, LysRS) of known specificity. This low-volume (6 microl) method detects as little as 0.01% (600 fmol) exchange, comparable in sensitivity to previously reported radioactive assays and readily adaptable to kinetics measurements and high throughput analysis of a wide spectrum of synthetases. Finally, a previously uncharacterized A-T didomain from anthramycin biosynthesis in the thermophile S. refuinius was demonstrated to selectively activate 4-methyl-3-hydroxyanthranilic acid at 47 degrees C, providing biochemical evidence for a new aromatic beta-amino acid activating adenylation domain and the first functional analysis of the anthramycin biosynthetic gene cluster.
Chemistry & biology 06/2009; 16(5):473-8. · 6.52 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Fore-knowledge of the secondary metabolic potential of cultivated and previously uncultivated microorganisms can potentially facilitate the process of natural product discovery. By combining sequence-based knowledge with biochemical precedent, translated gene sequence data can be used to rapidly derive structural elements encoded by secondary metabolic gene clusters from microorganisms. These structural elements provide an estimate of the secondary metabolic potential of a given organism and a starting point for identification of potential lead compounds in isolation/structure elucidation campaigns. The accuracy of these predictions for a given translated gene sequence depends on the biochemistry of the metabolite class, similarity to known metabolite gene clusters, and depth of knowledge concerning its biosynthetic machinery. This chapter introduces methods for prediction of structural elements for two well-studied classes: modular polyketides and nonribosomally encoded peptides. A bioinformatics tool is presented for rapid preliminary analysis of these modular systems, and prototypical methods for converting these analyses into substructural elements are described.
Methods in enzymology 02/2009; 458:181-217. · 1.90 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The reassembly and heterologous expression of complete gene clusters in shuttle vectors has enabled investigations of several large biosynthetic pathways in recent years. With a gene cluster in a mobile construct, the interrogation of gene functions from both culturable and nonculturable organisms is greatly accelerated and large pathway engineering efforts can be executed to produce "new" natural products. However, the genetic manipulation of complete natural product biosynthetic gene clusters is often complicated by their sheer size (10-200 kbp), which makes standard restriction/ligation-based methods impracticable. To circumvent these problems, alternative recombinogenic methods, which depend on engineered homology-based recombination have recently arisen as a powerful alternative. Here, we describe a new general technique that can be used to reconstruct large biosynthetic pathways from overlapping cosmids by retrofitting each cosmid with a "recombinogenic cassette" that contains a shared homologous element and orthogonal antibiotic markers. We employed this technique to reconstruct the anthramycin biosynthetic gene cluster of the thermotolerant actinomycete Streptomyces refuineus, from two >30 kbp cosmids into a single cosmid and integrate it into the genome of Streptomyces lividans. Anthramycin production in the heterologous Streptomyces host confirmed the integrity of the reconstructed pathway and validated the proposed boundaries of the gene cluster. Notably, anthramycin production by recombinant S. lividans was seen only during growth at high temperature--a property also shown by the natural host. This work provides tools to engineer the anthramycin biosynthetic pathway and to explore the connection between anthramycin production and growth at elevated temperatures.
ChemBioChem 08/2008; 9(10):1603-8. · 3.94 Impact Factor
