Ergot alkaloids are toxins and important pharmaceuticals which are produced biotechnologically on an industrial scale. They have been identified in two orders of fungi and three families of higher plants. The most important producers are fungi of the genera Claviceps, Penicillium and Aspergillus (all belonging to the Ascomycota). Chemically, ergot alkaloids are characterised by the presence of a tetracyclic ergoline ring, and can be divided into three classes according to their structural features, i.e. amide- or peptide-like amide derivatives of D-lysergic acid and the clavine alkaloids. Significant progress has been achieved on the molecular biological and biochemical investigations of ergot alkaloid biosynthesis in the last decade. By gene cloning and genome mining, gene clusters for ergot alkaloid biosynthesis have been identified in at least 8 different ascomycete species. Functions of most structure genes have been assigned to reaction steps in the biosynthesis of ergot alkaloids by gene inactivation experiments or biochemical characterisation of the overproduced proteins.

Ergot alkaloids are toxins and important pharmaceuticals which are produced biotechnologically on an industrial scale. A putative gene fgaFS has been identified in the biosynthetic gene cluster of fumigaclavine C, an ergot alkaloid of the clavine-type. The deduced gene product FgaFS comprises 290 amino acids with a molecular mass of about 32.1 kDa. The coding region of fgaFS consisting of three exons was amplified by PCR from a cDNA library of Aspergillus fumigatus, cloned into pQE70 and overexpressed in E. coli. The soluble monomeric His(6)-FgaFS was purified by affinity chromatography and used for enzyme assays. It has been shown that FgaFS is responsible for the conversion of chanoclavine-I aldehyde to festuclavine in the presence of the old yellow enzyme FgaOx3. The structure of festuclavine including the stereochemistry was unequivocally elucidated by NMR and MS analyses. Festuclavine formation was only observed when chanoclavine-I aldehyde was incubated with FgaOx3 and FgaFS simultaneously or as a tandem-reaction with a sequence of FgaOx3 before FgaFS. In the absence of FgaFS, two shunt products were formed and did not serve as substrates for FgaFS reaction.

Ergot alkaloids are toxins and important pharmaceuticals which are produced biotechnologically on an industrial scale. A putative gene fgaDH has been identified in the biosynthetic gene cluster of fumigaclavine C, an ergot alkaloid of the clavine-type. The deduced gene product FgaDH comprises 261 amino acids with a molecular mass of about 27.8 kDa and contains the conserved motifs of classical short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs), but shares no worth mentioning sequence similarity with SDRs and other known proteins. The coding region of fgaDH consisting of two exons was amplified by PCR from a cDNA library of Aspergillus fumigatus, cloned into pQE60 and overexpressed in E. coli. The soluble tetrameric His(6)-FgaDH was purified to apparent homogeneity and characterized biochemically. It has been shown that FgaDH catalyzes the oxidation of chanoclavine-I in the presence of NAD(+) resulting in the formation of chanoclavine-I aldehyde, which was unequivocally identified by NMR and MS analyzes. Therefore, FgaDH functions as a chanoclavine-I dehydrogenase and represents a new group of short-chain dehydrogenases. K (M) values for chanoclavine-I and NAD(+) were determined at 0.27 and 1.1 mM, respectively. The turnover number was 0.38 s(-1).

Ergot alkaloids are indole derivatives with diverse structures and biological activities. They are produced by a wide range of fungi with Claviceps purpurea as the most important producer for medical use. Chanoclavine-I aldehyde is proposed as a branch point via festuclavine or pyroclavine to clavine-type alkaloids in Trichocomaceae and via agroclavine to ergoamides and ergopeptines in Clavicipitaceae. Here we report the conversion of chanoclavine-I aldehyde to agroclavine by EasG from Claviceps purpurea, a homologue of the festuclavine synthase FgaFS in Aspergillus fumigatus, in the presence of reduced glutathione and NADPH. EasG comprises 290 amino acids with a molecular mass of about 31.9 kDa. The soluble monomeric His(6)-EasG was purified after overproduction in E. coli by affinity chromatography and used for enzyme assays. The structure of agroclavine was unequivocally elucidated by NMR and MS analyses.

Genome sequence analysis of different fungi of the family Arthrodermataceae revealed the presence of a gene cluster consisting of five genes with high sequence similarity to those involved in the early common steps of ergot alkaloid biosynthesis in Aspergillus fumigatus and Claviceps purpurea. To provide evidence that this cluster is involved in ergot alkaloid biosynthesis, the gene ARB_04646 of the fungus Arthroderma benhamiae was cloned into pQE60 and expressed in Escherichia coli. Enzyme assays with the soluble tetrameric His 6 -tagged protein proved unequivocally that the deduced gene product, here termed ChaDH, catalysed the oxidation of chanoclavine-I in the presence of NAD + , resulting in the formation of chanoclavine-I aldehyde. The enzyme product was unequivocally proven by NMR and MS analyses. Therefore, ChaDH functions as a chanoclavine-I dehydrogenase. K m values for chanoclavine-I and NAD + were 0.09 and 0.36 mM, respectively. Turnover number was 0.76 s -1 .

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A previous study showed that together with the festuclavine synthase FgaFS, the old yellow enzyme FgaOx3 from Aspergillus fumigatus catalyzed the conversion of chanoclavine-I aldehyde to festuclavine in the biosynthesis of ergot alkaloids. In the absence of FgaFS, a mixture containing two compounds with a ratio of 7:3 was detected in the enzyme assay of FgaOx3. NMR experiments including (DQF)-COSY, HSQC, HMBC and NOESY identified their structures as E/Z isomers of N-methyl-N-[(5R,10R)-10-(2-oxo-propyl)-2,4,5,10-tetrahydrobenzo[cd]indol-5-yl]formamide and proved the migration of the formyl group at C-8 in chanoclavine I-aldehyde to N-6 in the identified products.

Ergot alkaloids are important as mycotoxins or as drugs. Naturally occurring ergot alkaloids as well as their semisynthetic derivatives have been used as pharmaceuticals in modern medicine for decades. We identified 196 putative ergot alkaloid biosynthetic genes belonging to at least 31 putative gene clusters in 31 fungal species by genome mining of the 360 available genome sequences of ascomycetous fungi with known proteins. Detailed analysis showed that these fungi belong to the families Aspergillaceae, Clavicipitaceae, Arthrodermataceae, Helotiaceae and Thermoascaceae. Within the identified families, only a small number of taxa are represented. Literature search revealed a large diversity of ergot alkaloid structures in different fungi of the phylum Ascomycota. However, ergot alkaloid accumulation was only observed in 15 of the sequenced species. Therefore, this study provides genetic basis for further study on ergot alkaloid production in the sequenced strains.