Acyltransferase (AT) domains of modular polyketide synthases exercise tight control over the choice of α-carboxyacyl-CoA substrates, but the mechanistic basis for this specificity is unknown. We show that whereas the specificity for the electrophilic malonyl or methylmalonyl component is primarily expressed in the first half-reaction (formation of the acyl enzyme intermediate), the second half-reaction shows comparable specificity for the acyl carrier protein that carries the nucleophilic pantetheine arm. We also show that currently used approaches for engineering AT domain specificity work mainly by degrading specificity for the natural substrate rather than by enhancing specificity for alternative substrates.

Polyketide natural products act as a broad range of therapeutics, including antibiotics, immunosuppressants and anti-cancer agents. This therapeutic diversity stems from the structural diversity of these small molecules, many of which are produced in an assembly line manner by modular polyketide synthases. The acyltransferase (AT) domains of these megasynthases are responsible for selection and incorporation of simple monomeric building blocks, and are thus responsible for a large amount of the resulting polyketide structural diversity. The substrate specificity of these domains is often targeted for engineering in the generation of novel, therapeutically active natural products. This review outlines recent developments that can be used in the successful engineering of these domains, including AT sequence and structural data, mechanistic insights and the production of a diverse pool of extender units. It also provides an overview of previous AT domain engineering attempts, and concludes with proposed engineering approaches that take advantage of current knowledge. These approaches may lead to successful production of biologically active 'unnatural' natural products.

Due to their pivotal role in extender unit selection during polyketide biosynthesis, acyltransferase (AT) domains are important engineering targets. A subset of assembly line polyketide synthases (PKSs) are serviced by discrete, trans-acting ATs. Theoretically, these trans-ATs can complement an inactivated cis-AT, promoting introduction of a noncognate extender unit. This approach requires a better understanding of the substrate specificity and catalytic mechanism of naturally occurring trans-ATs. We kinetically analyzed trans-ATs from the disorazole and kirromycin synthases and compared them to a representative cis-AT from the 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase (DEBS). During transacylation, the disorazole AT favored malonyl-CoA over methylmalonyl-CoA by >40000-fold, whereas the kirromycin AT favored ethylmalonyl-CoA over methylmalonyl-CoA by 20-fold. Conversely, the disorazole AT had broader specificity than its kirromycin counterpart for acyl carrier protein (ACP) substrates. The presence of the ACP had little effect on the specificity (kcat/KM) of the cis-AT domain for carboxyacyl-CoA substrates but had a marked influence on the corresponding specificity parameters for the trans-ATs, suggesting that these enzymes do not act strictly by a canonical ping-pong mechanism. To investigate the relevance of the kinetic analysis of isolated ATs in the context of intact PKSs, we complemented an in vitro AT-null DEBS assembly line with either trans-AT. Whereas the disorazole AT efficiently complemented the mutant PKS at substoichiometric protein ratios, the kirromycin AT was considerably less effective. Our findings suggest that knowledge of both carboxyacyl-CoA and ACP specificity is critical to the choice of a trans-AT in combination with a mutant PKS to generate novel polyketides.