Amorpha-4,11-diene synthase (ADS)
is the first committed enzyme
in the biosynthesis of artemisinin. Artemisinin production by biobased
fermentation is considered a reliable alternative pathway. Heterologously
expressed ADS has been established to generate several minor products,
including structural analogues of amorpha-4,11-diene, but their fate
in fermentation is still unknown. Here, using chiral analysis, we
found that ADS produces one of the analogues, amorpha-4-en-11-ol,
as a pair of epimers. Labeling experiments revealed that ADS mutants
yielded amorphene-type sesquiterpenes, indicating the co-occurrence
of initial 1,6 and 1,10 cyclization of farnesyl diphosphate in a single
enzyme. Interestingly, the immediate downstream oxidase CYP71AV1 had
very low affinity to the side products of the recombinant ADS, including
amorpha-4-en-7-ol, which is structurally similar to amorpha-4,11-diene.
Our data uncover the complex catalytic mechanism of recombinant ADS
and reveal a potential negative effect of the side products of recombinant
ADS on the production of the artemisinin precursor in microbes.