Polyketide and nonribosomal peptides constitute important classes of small molecule natural products. Due to the proven biological activities of these compounds, novel methods for discovery and study of the polyketide synthase (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes responsible for their production remains an area of intense interest, and proteomic approaches represent a relatively unexplored avenue. While these enzymes may be distinguished from the proteomic milieu by their use of the 4′-phosphopantetheine (PPant) posttranslational modification, proteomic detection of PPant peptides is hindered by their low abundance and labile nature which leaves them unassigned using traditional database searching. Here we address key experimental and computational challenges to facilitate practical discovery of this important posttranslational modification during shotgun proteomics analysis using low-resolution ion-trap mass spectrometers. Activity-based enrichment maximizes MS input of PKS/NRPS peptides, while targeted fragmentation detects putative PPant active sites. An improved data analysis pipeline allows experimental identification and validation of these PPant peptides directly from MS 2 data. Finally, a machine learning approach is developed to directly detect PPant peptides from only MS 2 fragmentation data. By providing new methods for analysis of an often cryptic posttranslational modification, these methods represent a first step towards the study of natural product biosynthesis in proteomic settings.
Pantetheine, and its corresponding disulfide pantethine, play a key role in metabolism as a building block of coenzyme A (CoA), an essential cofactor utilized in ~4% of primary metabolism and central to fatty acid, polyketide, and non-ribosomal peptide synthases. Using a combination of recombinant engineering and chemical synthesis, we demonstrate that the disulfide of N-pantoylglycyl-2-aminoethanethiol (GlyPan), with one carbon deletion from pantetheine, can rescue a mutant E. coli strain MG1655CΔpanC lacking a functional pantothenate synthetase. Using mass spectral methods, we demonstrate that the GlyPan variant is accepted by the downstream CoA biosynthetic machinery, ultimately being incorporated into essential acyl carrier proteins. These findings point to further flexibility in CoA-dependent pathways and offer the opportunity to incorporate orthogonal analogs.
The post-translational modifying enzymes phophopantetheinyl transferase and acyl carrier protein hydrolase have shown utility in the functional modification of acyl carrier proteins. Here we develop these tools as immobilized biocatalysts on agarose supports. New utility is imparted through these methods, enabling rapid and label-independent protein purification. Immobilization of acyl carrier protein is also demonstrated for rapid activity assays of these 4'-phosophopantetheine modifying enzymes, displaying a particular advantage in the case of phosphopantetheine removal, where few orthogonal techniques have been demonstrated. These tools further enrich the suite of functional utility of 4'-phosophopantetheine chemistry, with applications to protein functionalization, materials, and natural product biosynthetic studies.
Protein–protein interactions play an integral role in metabolic regulation. Elucidation of these networks is complicated by the changing identity of the proteins themselves. Here we demonstrate a resin-based technique that leverages the unique tools for acyl carrier protein (ACP) modification with non-hydrolyzable linkages. ACPs from Escherichia coli and Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 are bound to Affigel-15 with varying acyl groups attached and introduced to proteomic samples. Isolation of these binding partners is followed by MudPIT analysis to identify each interactome with the variable of ACP-tethered substrates. These techniques allow for investigation of protein interaction networks with the changing identity of a given protein target.
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