Pericyclic reactions are powerful transformations for the construction of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds in organic synthesis. Their role in biosynthesis is increasingly apparent, and mechanisms by which pericyclases can catalyse reactions are of major interest 1. [4+2] cycloadditions (Diels-Alder reactions) have been widely used in organic synthesis 2 for the formation of six-membered rings and are now well-established in biosynthesis 3-6. [6+4] and other 'higher-order' cycloadditions were predicted 7 in 1965, and are now increasingly common in the laboratory despite challenges arising from the generation of a highly strained ten-membered ring Reprints and permissions information is available at http://www.nature.com/reprints.

Streptoseomycin (1), which is a rare macrodilactone with potent activities against microaerophilic bacteria, featuring a pentacyclic 5/14/10/6/6 ring system together with an ether bridge, was characterized by a combination of spectroscopic method and X-ray analysis from a marine Streptomyces seoulensis. Sequencing and characterization of a ∼76-kb biosynthetic gene cluster led to the proposition of the biosynthetic pathway of 1. Heterologous expression of the gene cluster using a BAC vector in Streptomyces chartreusis 1018 led to the successful production of 1.

Genome mining of the marine Streptomyces seoulensis A01 enabled the identification of a giant type I polyketide synthase gene cluster (asm). Heterologous expression of the cryptic asm cluster using a bacterial artificial chromosome vector in heterologous host led to the production of ansaseomycins A (1) and B (2). A plausible biosynthetic pathway was also proposed. Additionally, compounds 1 and 2 are active against K562 cell lines with IC 50 values of 13.3 and 18.1 μM, respectively.

Streptoseomycin (STM, 1) is a bacterial macrolactone that has a unique 5/14/10/6/6-pentacyclic ring with an ether bridge. We have previously identified the biosynthetic gene cluster for 1 and characterized StmD as [6 + 4]- and [4 + 2]-bispericyclase that catalyze a reaction leading to both 6/10/6- and 10/6/6-tricyclic adducts (6 and 7). The remaining steps, especially how to install and stabilize the required 10/6/6-tricyclic core for downstream modifications, remain unknown. In this work, we have identified three oxidoreductases that fix the required 10/6/6-tryciclic core. A pair of flavin-dependent oxidoreductases, StmO1 and StmO2, catalyze the direct hydroxylation at [6 + 4]-adduct (6). Subsequently, a spontaneous [3,3]-Cope rearrangement and an enol-ketone tautomerization result in the formation of 10/6/6-tricyclic intermediate 12b, which can be further converted to a stable 10/6/6-tricyclic alcohol 11 through a ketoreduction by StmK. Crystal structure of the heterodimeric complex NtfO1-NtfO2, homologues of StmO1-StmO2 with equivalent function, reveals protein-protein interactions. Our results demonstrate that the [6 + 4]-adduct instead of [4 + 2]-adduct is the bona fide biosynthetic intermediate.

Ansaseomycins are ansamycin-type natural products produced through expression of the asm gene cluster in a heterologous host. A rare berberine bridge enzyme (BBE) like oxidase, AsmF, is encoded in the asm gene cluster. Deletion of asmF led to the accumulation of a series of structurally diverse compounds, all of which lacked the 23-hydroxyl group in naphthalenic motif. Our work demonstrated that AsmF dictated the formation of the naphthalenic hydroxyl group in ansaseomycin biosynthesis.