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.natural products | metabolite discovery | multivariate statistical analysis
Intergeneric microbial interactions may originate a significant fraction of secondary metabolic gene regulation in nature. Herein we expose a genomically characterized Nocardiopsis strain, with untapped polyketide biosynthetic potential, to intergeneric interactions via co-culture with low inoculum exposure to Escherichia, Bacillus, Tsukamurella and Rhodococcus. The challenge-induced responses of extracted metabolites were characterized via multivariate statistical and self-organizing map (SOM) analyses, revealing the magnitude and selectivity engendered by the limiting case of low inoculum exposure. The collected inventory of co-cultures revealed substantial metabolomic expansion in comparison to monocultures with nearly 14% of metabolomic features in co-cultures undetectable in monoculture conditions, and many features unique to co-culture genera. One set of SOM-identified responding features was isolated, structurally characterized by multidimensional NMR, and revealed to comprise previously unreported polyketides containing an unusual pyrrolidinol substructure and moderate and selective cytotoxicity. Designated ciromicin A and B, they are detected across mixed cultures with intergeneric preferences under co-culture conditions. The structural novelty of ciromicin A is highlighted by its ability to undergo a diastereoselective photochemical 12-π electron rearrangement to ciromicin B at visible wavelengths. This study shows how organizing trends in metabolomic responses under co-culture conditions can be harnessed to characterize multipartite cultures and identify previously silent secondary metabolism.
Culture extracts from the cave-derived actinomycete Nonomuraea specus were investigated, resulting in the discovery of a new S-bridged pyronaphthoquinone dimer and its monomeric progenitors designated hypogeamicins A–D (1–4). The structures were elucidated using NMR spectroscopy, and the relative stereochemistries of the pyrans were inferred using NOE and comparison to previously reported compounds. Absolute stereochemistry was determined using quantum chemical calculations of specific rotation and vibrational and electronic circular dichroism spectra, after an extensive conformational search and including solute–solvent polarization effects, and comparing with the corresponding experimental data for the monomeric congeners. Interestingly, the dimeric hypogeamicin A (1) was found to be cytotoxic to the colon cancer derived cell line TCT-1 at low micromolar ranges, but not bacteria, whereas the monomeric precursors possessed antibiotic activity but no significant TCT-1 cytotoxicity.
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 P450 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.
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.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.