Title | Catalytic promiscuity in the biosynthesis of cyclic peptide secondary metabolites in planktonic marine cyanobacteria. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2010 |
Authors | Li, B, Sher, D, Kelly, L, Shi, Y, Huang, K, Knerr, PJ, Joewono, I, Rusch, D, Chisholm, SW, van der Donk, WA |
Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
Volume | 107 |
Issue | 23 |
Pagination | 10430-5 |
Date Published | 2010 Jun 8 |
ISSN | 1091-6490 |
Keywords | Amino Acid Sequence, Bacterial Proteins, Biocatalysis, Conserved Sequence, Cyclization, Genome, Bacterial, Molecular Sequence Data, Multigene Family, Peptides, Cyclic, Phytoplankton, Prochlorococcus, Sequence Alignment |
Abstract | Our understanding of secondary metabolite production in bacteria has been shaped primarily by studies of attached varieties such as symbionts, pathogens, and soil bacteria. Here we show that a strain of the single-celled, planktonic marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus-which conducts a sizable fraction of photosynthesis in the oceans-produces many cyclic, lanthionine-containing peptides (lantipeptides). Remarkably, in Prochlorococcus MIT9313 a single promiscuous enzyme transforms up to 29 different linear ribosomally synthesized peptides into a library of polycyclic, conformationally constrained products with highly diverse ring topologies. Genes encoding this system are found in variable abundances across the oceans-with a hot spot in a Galapagos hypersaline lagoon-suggesting they play a habitat- and/or community-specific role. The extraordinarily efficient pathway for generating structural diversity enables these cyanobacteria to produce as many secondary metabolites as model antibiotic-producing bacteria, but with much smaller genomes. |
DOI | 10.1073/pnas.0913677107 |
Alternate Journal | Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |
PubMed ID | 20479271 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC2890784 |
Grant List | GM58822 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States R01 GM058822-12 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States / / Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States |