Type I modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are polymerases that utilize acyl-CoAs as substrates. Each polyketide elongation reaction is catalyzed by a set of protein domains called a module. Each module usually contains an acyltransferase (AT) domain, which determines the specific acyl-CoA incorporated into each condensation reaction. Although a successful exchange of individual AT domains can lead to the biosynthesis of a large variety of novel compounds, hybrid PKS modules often show significantly decreased activities. Using monomodular PKSs as models, we have systematically analyzed the segments of AT domains and associated linkers in AT exchanges in vitro and have identified the boundaries within a module that can be used to exchange AT domains while maintaining protein stability and enzyme activity. Importantly, the optimized domain boundary is highly conserved, which facilitates AT domain replacements in most type I PKS modules. To further demonstrate the utility of the optimized AT domain boundary, we have constructed hybrid PKSs to produce industrially important short-chain ketones. Our in vitro and in vivo analysis demonstrated production of predicted ketones without significant loss of activities of the hybrid enzymes. These results greatly enhance the mechanistic understanding of PKS modules and prove the benefit of using engineered PKSs as a synthetic biology tool for chemical production.
Multimodular polyketide synthases (PKSs) have an assembly line architecture in which a set of protein domains, known as a module, participates in one round of polyketide chain elongation and associated chemical modifications, after which the growing chain is translocated to the next PKS module. The ability to rationally reprogram these assembly lines to enable efficient synthesis of new polyketide antibiotics has been a long-standing goal in natural products biosynthesis. We have identified a ratchet mechanism that can explain the observed unidirectional translocation of the growing polyketide chain along the 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase. As a test of this model, module 3 of the 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase has been reengineered to catalyze two successive rounds of chain elongation. Our results suggest that high selectivity has been evolutionarily programmed at three types of protein-protein interfaces that are present repetitively along naturally occurring PKS assembly lines.A fundamental challenge to our understanding of multimodular polyketide synthases (PKSs) is the ability to explain the unidirectional translocation of growing polyketide chains through these enzymatic assembly lines. The 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase (DEBS; Fig. 1) is arguably the most well studied example of assembly line PKSs (1-4). Each module of DEBS has an acyl carrier protein (ACP) that collaborates with the β-ketosynthase (KS) domain of the same module to catalyze a single round of polyketide chain elongation ( Fig. 2). At this point, the ACP-bound intermediate is precluded from back-transfer to the same KS domain and is instead translocated to the KS domain of the downstream module (Fig. 2).In the course of our investigations into the mechanism of intermodular chain translocation (Fig. 2, reaction 1) and intramodular chain elongation (Fig. 2, reaction 4) within DEBS, we discovered that the specificity of these two reactions is controlled by protein-protein interfaces involving distinct regions of the ACP domain (5). In the present study, we have used site-directed mutagenesis to identify ACP residues that contribute to the observed specificity. In turn, these residue-level constraints were exploited to validate the proposed structural model for ACP docking during chain elongation (5), as well as to develop an analogous in silico model for chain translocation. Generalization of these models to three naturally occurring PKSs has revealed a programming pattern that establishes a ratchet mechanism that accurately explains the unique chain translocation pathway of each PKS. As a test of this ratcheting mechanism in PKS assembly lines, we engineered a module of DEBS to iteratively catalyze two successive rounds of chain elongation instead of only one. Results and DiscussionIdentification of ACP Residues That Contribute to Chain Elongation Specificity. All ACPs from fatty acid and polyketide synthases are all-helical bundles comprised of three major α-helices connected by two structured loops (Fig. 3A). In earlier work (5) we showe...
LipPks1, a polyketide synthase subunit of the lipomycin synthase, is believed to catalyze the polyketide chain initiation reaction using isobutyryl-CoA as a substrate, followed by an elongation reaction with methylmalonyl-CoA to start the biosynthesis of antibiotic α-lipomycin in Streptomyces aureofaciens Tü117. Recombinant LipPks1, containing the thioesterase domain from the 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase, was produced in Escherichia coli, and its substrate specificity was investigated in vitro. Surprisingly, several different acyl-CoAs, including isobutyryl-CoA, were accepted as the starter substrates, while no product was observed with acetyl-CoA. These results demonstrate the broad substrate specificity of LipPks1 and may be applied to producing new antibiotics.
Microbial production of fuels and commodity chemicals has been performed primarily using natural or slightly modified enzymes, which inherently limits the types of molecules that can be produced. Type I modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are multi-domain enzymes that can produce unique and diverse molecular structures by combining particular types of catalytic domains in a specific order. This catalytic mechanism offers a wealth of engineering opportunities. Here we report engineered microbes that produce various short-chain (C5–C7) ketones using hybrid PKSs. Introduction of the genes into the chromosome of Streptomyces albus enables it to produce >1 g · l−1 of C6 and C7 ethyl ketones and several hundred mg · l−1 of C5 and C6 methyl ketones from plant biomass hydrolysates. Engine tests indicate these short-chain ketones can be added to gasoline as oxygenates to increase the octane of gasoline. Together, it demonstrates the efficient and renewable microbial production of biogasolines by hybrid enzymes.
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