Natural products and natural product derived compounds play an important role in modern healthcare as frontline treatments for many diseases and as inspiration for chemically synthesized therapeutics. With advances in sequencing and recombinant DNA technology, many of the biosynthetic pathways responsible for the production of these chemically complex and pharmaceutically valuable compounds have been elucidated. With an ever expanding toolkit of biosynthetic components, metabolic engineering is an increasingly powerful method to improve natural product titers and generate novel compounds. Heterologous production platforms have enabled access to pathways from difficult to culture strains; systems biology and metabolic modeling tools have resulted in increasing predictive and analytic capabilities; advances in expression systems and regulation have enabled the fine-tuning of pathways for increased efficiency, and characterization of individual pathway components has facilitated the construction of hybrid pathways for the production of new compounds. These advances in the many aspects of metabolic engineering have not only yielded fascinating scientific discoveries but also make it an increasingly viable approach for the optimization of natural product biosynthesis.

Oxytetracycline (OTC) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that acts by inhibiting protein synthesis in bacteria. It is an important member of the bacterial aromatic polyketide family, which is a structurally diverse class of natural products. OTC is synthesized by a type II polyketide synthase that generates the poly-␤-ketone backbone through successive decarboxylative condensation of malonyl-CoA extender units, followed by modifications by cyclases, oxygenases, transferases, and additional tailoring enzymes. Genetic and biochemical studies have illuminated most of the steps involved in the biosynthesis of OTC, which is detailed here as a representative case study in type II polyketide biosynthesis.

SF2575 1 is a tetracycline polyketide produced by Streptomyces sp. SF2575 and displays exceptionally potent anticancer activity towards a broad range of cancer cell lines. The structure of SF2575 is characterized by a highly substituted tetracycline aglycon. The modifications include methylation of the C-6 and C-12a hydroxyl groups, acylation of the 4-(S)-hydroxyl with salicylic acid, C-glycosylation of the C-9 of the D-ring with D-olivose and further acylation of the C4′-hydroxyl of D-olivose with the unusual angelic acid. Understanding the biosynthesis of SF2575 can therefore expand the repertoire of enzymes that can modify tetracyclines, and facilitate engineered biosynthesis of SF2575 analogs. In this study, we identified, sequenced and functionally analyzed the ssf biosynthetic gene cluster which contains 40 putative open reading frames. Genes encoding enzymes that can assemble the tetracycline aglycon, as well as installing these unique structural features are found in the gene cluster. Biosynthetic intermediates were isolated from the SF2575 culture extract to suggest the order of pendant groups addition is C-9 glycosylation, C-4 salicylation and O-4′ angelycylation. Using in vitro assays, two enzymes that are responsible for C-4 acylation of salicylic acid were identified. These enzymes include an ATP-dependent salicylyl-CoA ligase SsfL1 and a putative GDSL family acyltransferase SsfX3, both of which were shown to have relaxed substrate specificity towards substituted benzoic acids. Since the salicylic acid moiety is critically important for the anticancer properties of SF2575, verification of the activities of SsfL1 and SsfX3 sets the stage for biosynthetic modification of the C-4 group towards structural-activity relationship studies of SF2575. Using heterologous biosynthesis in Streptomyces lividans, we also determined that biosynthesis of the SF2575 tetracycline aglycon 8 parallels that of oxytetracycline 4 and diverges after the assembly of 4-keto-anhydrotetracycline 51. The minimal ssf polyketide synthase together with the amidotransferase SsfD produced the amidated decaketide backbone that is required for the formation of 2-naphthacenecarboxamide skeleton. Additional enzymes, such as cyclases, C-6 methyltransferase and C-4/C-12a dihydroxylase were functionally reconstituted. Keywordstopoisomerase; polyketide; salicylate; biosynthesis; acyltransferase yitang@ucla.edu. Supporting Information Available: Additional Experimental procedures, and compound characterizations. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript J Am Chem Soc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 December 9. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptBacterial aromatic polyketide natural products comprise a group of molecules that displays diverse structures and bioactivities yet share common biosynthetic origins. The poly-β-ketone backbone is synthesized by a minimal polyketide synthase (PKS) consisting of a ketosynt...

Three and one: Three tetracycline biosynthetic pathways have been overexpressed and manipulated in heterologous host Streptomyces lividans K4-114. New tetracycline modifying enzymes have been identified through a series of gene inactivation and intermediate characterization. The collection of newly discovered tailoring enzyme and the heterologous platform will promote our understanding of tetracycline biosynthesis, as well as our performance to engineer tetracycline biosynthesis in an efficient manner.

Tetracyclines have been important agents in combating infectious disease since their discovery in the mid-twentieth century. Following widespread use, tetracycline resistance mechanisms emerged and continue to create a need for new derivatives that are active against resistant bacterial strains. Semisynthesis has led to second and third generation tetracycline derivatives with enhanced antibiotic activity and pharmacological properties. Recent advancement in understanding of the tetracycline biosynthetic pathway may open the door to broaden the range of tetracycline derivatives and afford analogs that are difficult to access by synthetic chemistry.