The lantibiotic nisin is an antimicrobial peptide that is widely used as a food preservative to combat food-borne pathogens1. Nisin contains dehydroalanine and dehydrobutyrine residues that are formed via dehydration of Ser/Thr by the lantibiotic dehydratase NisB2. Recent biochemical studies revealed that NisB glutamylates Ser/Thr side chains as part of the dehydration process3. However, the molecular mechanism by which NisB utilizes glutamate to catalyze dehydration remains unresolved. Here we show that this process involves glutamyl-tRNAGlu to activate Ser/Thr residues. In addition, the 2.9 Å crystal structure of NisB in complex with its substrate peptide NisA reveals the presence of two separate domains that catalyze the Ser/Thr glutamylation and glutamate elimination steps. The co-crystal structure also provides the first insights into substrate recognition by lantibiotic dehydratases. Our findings demonstrate a non-anticipated role for aminoacyl-tRNA in the formation of dehydroamino acids in lantibiotics, and serve as a basis for the functional characterization of the many lantibiotic-like dehydratases involved in the biosynthesis of other classes of natural products.

Peptide display has enabled identification and optimization of ligands to many targets. These ligands are usually linear or disulfide-containing peptides that are vulnerable to proteolysis or reduction. We report yeast surface and phage display of lanthipeptides, macrocyclic ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Lanthipeptides contain multiple thioether cross-links that bestow their biological activities. We developed C-terminal yeast display of the class II lanthipeptides lacticin 481 and haloduracin β, and randomization of the C-ring of the former was used to select tight binders to αvβ3 integrin. This represents the first examples of bacterial RiPP production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for identification of variants with new biological activities. We also report N-terminal phage display of the class I lanthipeptide nisin and randomization of its A- and B-rings to enrich binders to a small molecule, lipid II. The successful display and randomization of both class I and II lanthipeptides demonstrates the versatility and potential of RiPP display.

Organofluorines represent a rapidly expanding proportion of molecules used in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, agrochemicals, and materials. Despite the prevalence of fluorine in synthetic compounds, the known biological scope is limited to a single pathway that produces fluoroacetate. Here, we demonstrate that this pathway can be exploited as a source of fluorinated building blocks for introduction of fluorine into natural product scaffolds. Specifically, we have constructed pathways involving two polyketide synthase systems and show that fluoroacetate can be used to incorporate fluorine into the polyketide backbone in vitro. We further show that fluorine can be introduced site-selectively and introduced into polyketide products in vivo. These results highlight the prospects for the production of complex fluorinated natural products using synthetic biology.

We describe the production and screening of a genetically encoded library of 106 lanthipeptides in Escherichia coli using the substrate-tolerant lanthipeptide synthetase ProcM. This plasmidencoded library was combined with a bacterial reverse two-hybrid system for the interaction of the HIV p6 protein with the UEV domain of the human TSG101 protein, a critical protein–protein interaction for HIV budding from infected cells. Using this approach, we identified an inhibitor of this interaction from the lanthipeptide library, whose activity was verified in vitro and in cell-based virus-like particle budding assays. Given the variety of lanthipeptide backbone scaffolds that may be produced with ProcM, this method may be used for the generation of genetically encoded libraries of natural product-like lanthipeptides containing substantial structural diversity. Such libraries may be combined with any cell-based assay for the identification of lanthipeptides with new biological activities.

Summary Class I lantibiotic dehydratases dehydrate selected Ser/Thr residues of a precursor peptide. Recent studies demonstrated the requirement of glutamyl-tRNAGlu for Ser/Thr activation by one of these enzymes (NisB) from the Firmicute Lactococcus lactis. However, the generality of glutamyl-tRNAGlu usage and the tRNA specificity of lantibiotic dehydratases have not been established. Here we report the 2.7-Å resolution crystal structure, along with the glutamyl-tRNAGlu utilization of MibB, a lantibiotic dehydratase from the Actinobacterium Microbispora sp. 107891 involved in the biosynthesis of the clinical candidate NAI-107. Biochemical assays revealed nucleotides A73 and U72 within the tRNAGlu acceptor stem to be important for MibB glutamyl-tRNAGlu usage. Using this knowledge, an expression system for the production of NAI-107 analogs in Escherichia coli was developed overcoming the inability of MibB to utilize E. coli tRNAGlu. Our work provides evidence for a common tRNAGlu-dependent dehydration mechanism, paving the way for the characterization of lantibiotics from various phyla.

Lanthionine-containing peptides (lanthipeptides) are a rapidly growing family of polycyclic peptide natural products belonging to the large class of ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Lanthipeptides are widely distributed in taxonomically distant species, and their currently known biosynthetic systems and biological activities are diverse. Building on the recent natural product gene cluster family (GCF) project, we report here large-scale analysis of lanthipeptidelike biosynthetic gene clusters from Actinobacteria. Our analysis suggests that lanthipeptide biosynthetic pathways, and by extrapolation the natural products themselves, are much more diverse than currently appreciated and contain many different posttranslational modifications. Furthermore, lanthionine synthetases are much more diverse in sequence and domain topology than currently characterized systems, and they are used by the biosynthetic machineries for natural products other than lanthipeptides. The gene cluster families described here significantly expand the chemical diversity and biosynthetic repertoire of lanthionine-related natural products. Biosynthesis of these novel natural products likely involves unusual and unprecedented biochemistries, as illustrated by several examples discussed in this study. In addition, class IV lanthipeptide gene clusters are shown not to be silent, setting the stage to investigate their biological activities. Lanthipeptides are a rapidly growing family of polycyclic peptides characterized by the presence of the thioether crosslinked amino acids lanthionine and methyllanthionine (1-5). These compounds are widely distributed in taxonomically distant species and display very diverse biological activities, ranging from antimicrobial to antiallodynic (5-7). Antibacterial lanthipeptides, such as the commercially used food preservative nisin, are termed lantibiotics (8). Lanthipeptides are generated from a ribosomally synthesized linear precursor peptide (generically termed LanA) and therefore belong to the large class of natural products that are ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs) (9). The precursor peptide LanA consists of a C-terminal core peptide where all posttranslational modifications take place and an N-terminal leader peptide that is important for posttranslational modifications and that is subsequently removed by proteolysis (10, 11). The installation of the (methyl)lanthionine thioether bridges is achieved by the initial dehydration of Ser and Thr residues in the precursor peptides, followed by stereoselective intramolecular Michael-type addition of Cys thiols to the newly formed dehydroamino acids (Fig. 1A).Four classes of biosynthetic enzymes are known to catalyze lanthionine formation (2, 12) (Fig. 1B). Class I lanthionine synthetases consist of a dehydratase and a cyclase that are generically termed LanB and LanC, respectively (8). Class II enzymes are generically named LanMs, which are single polypeptides containing an N-termi...

Background: Lanthipeptides belong to the ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide group of natural products and have a variety of biological activities ranging from antibiotics to antinociceptives. These peptides are cyclized through thioether crosslinks and can bear other secondary post-translational modifications. While lanthipeptide biosynthetic gene clusters can be identified by the presence of genes encoding characteristic enzymes involved in the post-translational modification process, locating the precursor peptides encoded within these clusters is challenging due to their short length and high sequence variability, which limits the high-throughput exploration of lanthipeptide biosynthesis. To address this challenge, we enhanced the predictive capabilities of Rapid ORF Description & Evaluation Online (RODEO) to identify members of all four known classes of lanthipeptides. Results: Using RODEO, we mined over 100,000 bacterial and archaeal genomes in the RefSeq database. We identified nearly 8500 lanthipeptide precursor peptides. These precursor peptides were identified in a broad range of bacterial phyla as well as the Euryarchaeota phylum of archaea. Bacteroidetes were found to encode a large number of these biosynthetic gene clusters, despite making up a relatively small portion of the genomes in this dataset. A number of these precursor peptides are similar to those of previously characterized lanthipeptides, but even more were not, including potential antibiotics. One such new antimicrobial lanthipeptide was purified and characterized. Additionally, examination of the biosynthetic gene clusters revealed that enzymes installing secondary post-translational modifications are more widespread than initially thought. Conclusion: Lanthipeptide biosynthetic gene clusters are more widely distributed and the precursor peptides encoded within these clusters are more diverse than previously appreciated, demonstrating that the lanthipeptide sequence-function space remains largely underexplored.

Both natural products and synthetic organofluorines play important roles in the discovery and design of pharmaceuticals. The combination of these two classes of molecules has the potential to be useful in the ongoing search for new bioactive compounds but our ability to produce site-selectively fluorinated natural products remains limited by challenges in compatibility between their high structural complexity and current methods for fluorination. Living systems provide an alternative route to chemical fluorination and could enable the production of organofluorine natural products through synthetic biology approaches. While the identification of biogenic organofluorines has been limited, the study of the native organisms and enzymes that utilize these compounds can help to guide efforts to engineer the incorporation of this unusual element into complex pharmacologically active natural products. This review covers recent advances in understanding both natural and engineered production of organofluorine natural products.