narbomycin and desosamine

The total synthesis of pikromycin (6), the first isolated macrolide antibiotic, was achieved. The target macrolide was retrosynthetically divided into two parts, pikronolide (6a) (aglycon) and D-desosamine. The aglycon was synthesized using key reactions such as an asymmetric aldol reaction, Yamaguchi esterification, and ring-closing metathesis. The aglycon was coupled successfully with the trichloroacetimidate derivative of D-desosamine under Lewis acidic conditions to afford pikromycin. Narbomycin (5) was also synthesized from narbonolide (5a) under identical conditions.

Topics: Amino Sugars; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Macrolides

The in vitro characterization of the catalytic activity of DesVII, the glycosyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of the macrolide antibiotics methymycin, neomethymycin, narbomycin, and pikromycin in Streptomyces venezuelae, is described. DesVII is unique among glycosyltransferases in that it requires an additional protein component, DesVIII, for activity. Characterization of the metabolites produced by a S. venezuelae mutant lacking the desVIII gene confirmed that desVIII is important for the biosynthesis of glycosylated macrolides but can be replaced by at least one of the homologous genes from other pathways. The addition of recombinant DesVIII protein significantly improves the glycosylation efficiency of DesVII in the in vitro assay. When affinity-tagged DesVII and DesVIII proteins were coproduced in Escherichia coli, they formed a tight (αβ)(3) complex that is at least 10(3)-fold more active than DesVII alone. The formation of the DesVII/DesVIII complex requires coexpression of both genes in vivo and cannot be fully achieved by mixing the individual protein components in vitro. The ability of the DesVII/DesVIII system to catalyze the reverse reaction with the formation of TDP-desosamine was also demonstrated in a transglycosylation experiment. Taken together, our data suggest that DesVIII assists the folding of DesVII during protein production and remains tightly bound during catalysis. This requirement must be taken into consideration in the design of combinatorial biosynthetic experiments with new glycosylated macrolides.

Topics: Amino Sugars; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Biosynthetic Pathways; Escherichia coli; Glycosylation; Glycosyltransferases; Macrolides; Proteins; Recombinant Proteins; Streptomyces

The cytochrome P-450 PikC from Streptomyces venezuelae exhibits significant substrate tolerance and performs multiple hydroxylation reactions on structurally variant macrolides bearing the deoxyamino sugar desosamine. In previously determined co-crystal structures (Sherman, D. H., Li, S., Yermalitskaya, L. V., Kim, Y., Smith, J. A., Waterman, M. R., and Podust, L. M. (2006) J. Biol. Chem. 281, 26289-26297), the desosamine moiety of the native substrates YC-17 and narbomycin is bound in two distinct buried and surface-exposed binding pockets, mediated by specific interactions between the protonated dimethylamino group and the acidic amino acid residues Asp(50), Glu(85), and Glu(94). Although the Glu(85) and Glu(94) negative charges are essential for maximal catalytic activity of native enzyme, elimination of the surface-exposed negative charge at Asp(50) results in significantly enhanced catalytic activity. Nevertheless, the D50N substitution could not rescue catalytic activity of PikC(E94Q) based on lack of activity in the corresponding double mutant PikC(D50N/E94Q). To address the specific role for each desosamine-binding pocket, we analyzed the x-ray structures of the PikC(D50N) mutant co-crystallized with narbomycin (1.85A resolution) and YC-17 (3.2A resolution). In PikC(D50N), the desosamine moiety of both YC-17 and narbomycin was bound in a catalytically productive "buried site." This finding suggested a two-step substrate binding mechanism, whereby desosamine is recognized in the two subsites to allow the macrolide substrate to sequentially progress toward a catalytically favorable orientation. Collectively, the binding, mutagenesis, kinetic, and x-ray structural data suggest that enhancement of the catalytic activity of PikC(D50N) is due to the facilitated relocation of substrate to the buried site, which has higher binding affinity, as opposed to dissociation in solution from the transient "surface-exposed site."

Topics: Amino Sugars; Catalysis; Crystallography, X-Ray; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; Macrolides; Models, Molecular; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; Protein Conformation; Streptomyces; Substrate Specificity