No abstract

Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are giant bacterial enzymes that synthesize many polyketides of therapeutic value. In contrast to PKSs that provide acyltransferase (AT) activities in cis, trans-AT PKSs lack integrated AT domains and exhibit unusual enzymatic features with poorly understood functions in polyketide assembly. This has retarded insight into the assembly of products such as mupirocin, leinamycin and bryostatin 1. We show that trans-AT PKSs evolved in a fundamentally different fashion from cis-AT systems, through horizontal recruitment and assembly of substrate-specific ketosynthase (KS) domains. The insights obtained from analysis of these KS mosaics will facilitate both the discovery of novel polyketides by genome mining, as we demonstrate for the thailandamides of Burkholderia thailandensis, and the extraction of chemical information from short trans-AT PCR products, as we show using metagenomic DNA of marine sponges. Our data also suggest new strategies for dissecting polyketide biosynthetic pathways and engineering polyketide assembly.

Microcystins are cyanobacterial toxins that represent a serious threat to drinking water and recreational lakes worldwide. Here, we show that microcystin fulfils an important function within cells of its natural producer Microcystis. The microcystin deficient mutant ΔmcyB showed significant changes in the accumulation of proteins, including several enzymes of the Calvin cycle, phycobiliproteins and two NADPH-dependent reductases. We have discovered that microcystin binds to a number of these proteins in vivo and that the binding is strongly enhanced under high light and oxidative stress conditions. The nature of this binding was studied using extracts of a microcystin-deficient mutant in vitro. The data obtained provided clear evidence for a covalent interaction of the toxin with cysteine residues of proteins. A detailed investigation of one of the binding partners, the large subunit of RubisCO showed a lower susceptibility to proteases in the presence of microcystin in the wild type. Finally, the mutant defective in microcystin production exhibited a clearly increased sensitivity under high light conditions and after hydrogen peroxide treatment. Taken together, our data suggest a protein-modulating role for microcystin within the producing cell, which represents a new addition to the catalogue of functions that have been discussed for microbial secondary metabolites.

No abstract

Aeruginosins represent a group of peptide metabolites isolated from various cyanobacterial genera and from marine sponges that potently inhibit different types of serine proteases. Members of this family are characterized by the presence of a 2-carboxy-6-hydroxyoctahydroindole (Choi) moiety. We have identified and fully sequenced a NRPS gene cluster in the genome of the cyanobacterium Planktothrix agardhii CYA126/8. Insertional mutagenesis of a NRPS component led to the discovery and structural elucidation of two glycopeptides that were designated aeruginoside 126A and aeruginoside 126B. One variant of the aglycone contains a 1-amino-2-(N-amidino-Delta(3)-pyrrolinyl)ethyl moiety at the C terminus, the other bears an agmatine residue. In silico analyses of the aeruginoside biosynthetic genes aerA-aerI as well as additional mutagenesis and feeding studies allowed the prediction of enzymatic steps leading to the formation of aeruginosides and the unusual Choi moiety.

No abstract

Insects develop efficient antimicrobial strategies to flourish in a bacterial world. It has long been proposed that native gut microbiota is an important component of host defense; however, the responsible species have rarely been isolated to elucidate the mechanism of action. Here we show that the dominant symbiotic bacterium Enterococcus mundtii associated with the generalist herbivore Spodoptera littoralis actively secretes a stable class IIa bacteriocin (mundticin KS) against invading bacteria, but not against other gut residents, facilitating the normal development of host gut microbiota. A mundticin-defective strain lost inhibitory activity. Furthermore, purified mundticin cures infected larvae. Thus, the constitutively produced antimicrobials by native extracellular symbionts create a significant chemical barrier inside limiting invader expansion. This unique property also benefits E. mundtii itself by providing a competitive advantage, contributing to its dominance within complex microbial settings and its prevalence across Lepidoptera, and probably promotes the long-term cooperative symbiosis between both parties.

Comparative analysis of related biosynthetic gene clusters can provide new insights into the versatility of these pathways and allow the discovery of new natural products. The freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa NIES298 produces the cytotoxic peptide microcyclamide. Here, we provide evidence that the cyclic hexapeptide is formed by a ribosomal pathway through the activity of a set of processing enzymes closely resembling those recently shown to be involved in patellamide biosynthesis in cyanobacterial symbionts of ascidians. Besides two subtilisin-type proteases and a heterocyclization enzyme, the gene cluster discovered in strain NIES298 encodes six further open reading frames, two of them without similarity to enzymes encoded by the patellamide gene cluster. Analyses of genomic data of a second cyanobacterial strain, M. aeruginosa PCC 7806, guided the discovery and structural elucidation of two novel peptides of the microcyclamide family. The identification of the microcyclamide biosynthetic genes provided an avenue by which to study the regulation of peptide synthesis at the transcriptional level. The precursor genes were strongly and constitutively expressed throughout the growth phase, excluding the autoinduction of these peptides, as has been observed for several peptide pheromone families in bacteria.Cyanobacteria are known as a prolific source of secondary metabolites exhibiting unique structural features and biological activities. Various cyanobacterial compounds (e.g., curacin A, aeruginosin, and cryptophycin) have great potential for drug development (33, 36). However, due to their adverse effects on higher organisms, several cyanobacterial metabolites are regarded as health-threatening toxins and have caused serious concern among water authorities worldwide. A majority of these compounds, in particular, those that were isolated from planktonic freshwater cyanobacteria belonging to the genera Microcystis, Planktothrix, Nostoc, and Anabaena, can be classified as peptides or possess peptidic substructures often comprising highly modified amino acid moieties. Several of these peptides, such as the hepatotoxin microcystin or the protease inhibitors aeruginosin and anabaenopeptolide, were shown to be produced by nonribosomal peptide synthetase assembly lines (13,27,34).The recent characterization of the patellamide biosynthetic pathway from the as-yet-nonculturable cyanobacterial symbiont of the ascidian Lissoclinum patella has revealed that there are biosynthetic pathways independent from nonribosomal peptide synthetase systems capable of producing modified and cyclic peptide structures in cyanobacteria (29). The patellamide family of cyclic pseudosymmetrical octapeptides is characterized by the presence of thiazole and oxazole moieties. Although nonribosomal biosynthesis was anticipated for the formation of these peptides, heterologous expression of a microcin-like gene cluster discovered in the genome of the symbiotic cyanobacterium Prochloron didemni unambiguously showed that these peptide...