Thiocillins from Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579 are members of the well-known thiazolyl peptide class of natural product antibiotics, the biosynthesis of which has recently been shown to proceed via posttranslational modification of ribosomally encoded precursor peptides. It has long been hypothesized that the final step of thiazolyl peptide biosynthesis involves a formal [4 + 2] cycloaddition between two dehydroalanines, a unique transformation that had eluded enzymatic characterization. Here we demonstrate that TclM, a single enzyme from the thiocillin biosynthetic pathway, catalyzes this transformation. To facilitate characterization of this new class of enzyme, we have developed a combined chemical and biological route to the complex peptide substrate, relying on chemical synthesis of a modified C-terminal fragment and coupling to a 38-residue leader peptide by means of native chemical ligation (NCL). This strategy, combined with active enzyme, provides a new chemoenzymatic route to this promising class of antibiotics.

α,β-Dehydroamino acids (dhAAs) are noncanonical amino acids that are found in a wide array of natural products and can be easily installed into peptides and proteins.