An unexpected role of EasDaf: catalyzing the conversion of chanoclavine aldehyde to chanoclavine acid.

Ergot alkaloids (EAs) are a diverse group of indole alkaloids known for their complex structures, significant pharmacological effects, and toxicity to plants. The biosynthesis of these compounds begins with chanoclavine-I aldehyde (CC aldehyde, 2), an important intermediate produced by the enzyme EasDaf or its counterpart FgaDH from chanoclavine-I (CC, 1). However, how CC aldehyde 2 is converted to chanoclavine-I acid (CC acid, 3), first isolated from Ipomoea violacea several decades ago, is still unclear. In this study, we provide in vitro biochemical evidence showing that EasDaf not only converts CC 1 to CC aldehyde 2 but also directly transforms CC 1 into CC acid 3 through two sequential oxidations. Molecular docking and site-directed mutagenesis experiments confirmed the crucial role of two amino acids, Y166 and S153, within the active site, which suggests that Y166 acts as a general base for hydride transfer, while S153 facilitates proton transfer, thereby increasing the acidity of the reaction. KEY POINTS: • EAs possess complicated skeletons and are widely used in several clinical diseases • EasDaf belongs to the short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs) and converted CC or CC aldehyde to CC acid • The catalytic mechanism of EasDaf for dehydrogenation was analyzed by molecular docking and site mutations.

Two Cytochrome P450 Enzymes Form the Tricyclic Nested Skeleton of Meroterpenoids by Sequential Oxidative Reactions.

Meroterpenoid clavilactones feature a unique benzo-fused ten-membered carbocyclic ring unit with an α,ß-epoxy-γ-lactone moiety, forming an intriguing 10/5/3 tricyclic nested skeleton. These compounds are good inhibitors of the tyrosine kinase, attracting a lot of chemical synthesis studies. However, the natural enzymes involved in the formation of the 10/5/3 tricyclic nested skeleton remain unexplored. Here, we identified a gene cluster responsible for the biosynthesis of clavilactone A in the basidiomycetous fungus Clitocybe clavipes. We showed that a key cytochrome P450 monooxygenase ClaR catalyzes the diradical coupling reaction between the intramolecular hydroquinone and allyl moieties to form the benzo-fused ten-membered carbocyclic ring unit, followed by the P450 ClaT that exquisitely and stereoselectively assembles the α,ß-epoxy-γ-lactone moiety in clavilactone biosynthesis. ClaR unprecedentedly acts as a macrocyclase to catalyze the oxidative cyclization of the isopentenyl to the nonterpenoid moieties to form the benzo-fused macrocycle, and a multifunctional P450 ClaT catalyzes a ten-electron oxidation to accomplish the biosynthesis of the 10/5/3 tricyclic nested skeleton in clavilactones. Our findings establish the foundation for the efficient production of clavilactones using synthetic biology approaches and provide the mechanistic insights into the macrocycle formation in the biosynthesis of fungal meroterpenoids.

Chemoenzymatic total synthesis of rotigotine via IRED-catalyzed reductive amination.

A short and chemoenzymatic synthesis of rotigotine using an IR-36-M5 mutant is reported. Focusing on the residues that directly contact the 2-tetralone moiety, we applied structure-guided semi-rational design to obtain a double-mutant F260W/M147Y, which showed a good isolated yield and S-stereoselectivity >99% toward 2-aminotetralin synthesis. Furthermore, the utility of this biocatalytic protocol was successfully demonstrated in the enantioselective synthesis of rotigotine via enzymatic reductive amination as the key step.

Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Selegiline: An Imine Reductase-Catalyzed Approach.

(R)-Homobenzylic amines are key structural motifs present in (R)-selegiline, a drug indicated for the treatment of early-stage Parkinson's disease. Herein, we report a new short chemoenzymatic approach (in 2 steps) towards the synthesis of (R)-selegiline via stereoselective biocatalytic reductive amination as the key step. The imine reductase IR36-M5 mutant showed high conversion (97%) and stereoselectivity (97%) toward the phenylacetone and propargyl amine substrates, offering valuable biocatalysts for synthesizing alkylated homobenzylic amines.

Preparation of an Aminated Lignin/Fe(III)/Polyvinyl Alcohol Film: A Packaging Material with UV Resistance and Slow-Release Function.

To reduce the usage of petroleum-based plastic products, a lignin-based film material named aminated lignin/Fe(III)/PVA was developed. The mixture of 8 g lignin, 12 mL diethylenetriamine, 200 mL NaOH solution (0.4 mol·L-1), and 8 mL formaldehyde was heated at 85 °C for 4 h; after the aminated lignin was impregnated in the Fe(NO3)3 solution, a mixture of 3 g aminated lignin/Fe(III), 7 g PVA, and 200 mL NaOH solution (pH 8) was heated at 85 °C for 60 min; after 2 mL of glycerin was added, the mixture was spread on a glass plate to obtain the aminated lignin/Fe(III)/PVA film. This film demonstrated hydrophobicity, an UV-blocking function, and a good slow-release performance. Due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the hydroxyl groups of lignin and PVA, the tensile strength, the elongation at break, and the fracture resistance of the film were 9.1%, 107.8%, and 21.9% higher than that of pure PVA film, respectively. The iron content of aminated lignin/Fe(III)/PVA was 1.06 wt%, which mainly existed in a trivalent form. The aminated lignin/Fe(III)/PVA film has the potential to be used as a food packaging material with anti-ultraviolet light function and can also be developed as other packaging materials, such as seedling bowls, pots for transplanting, and coating films during transport.

Structure-guided semi-rational design of an imine reductase for enantio-complementary synthesis of pyrrolidinamine.

In this study, engineered imine reductases (IREDs) of IRED M5, originally from Actinoalloteichus hymeniacidonis, were obtained through structure-guided semi-rational design. By focusing on mutagenesis of the residues that directly interact with the ketone donor moiety, we identified two residues W234 and F260, playing essential roles in enhancing and reversing the stereoselectivity, respectively. Moreover, two completely enantio-complementary variants S241L/F260N (R-selectivity up to 99%) and I149D/W234I (S-selectivity up to 99%) were achieved. Both variants showed excellent stereoselectivity toward the tested substrates, offering valuable biocatalysts for synthesizing pyrrolidinamines. Its application was demonstrated in a short synthesis of the key intermediates of potential drug molecules leniolisib and JAK1 inhibitor 4, from cheap and commercially available pro-chiral N-Boc-piperidone 1 (2 and 3 steps, respectively).

Semi-rational design of an imine reductase for asymmetric synthesis of alkylated S-4-azepanamines.

Although imine reductase (IRED)-catalyzed reductive amination is promising for the synthesis of alkylated chiral amines, precisely regulating the stereoselectivity of IRED remains a great challenge. Herein, focusing on the residues directly in contact with the ketone moiety, we applied structure-guided semi-rational design to obtain the triple-mutant I149Y/L200H/W234K. This mutant showed high stereoselectivity, of up to >99% (S), toward reductive amination of N-Boc-4-oxo-azepane and different amines, and to the best of our knowledge is the first biocatalyst developed for asymmetric synthesis of chiral azepane-4-amines.

A combined strategy for the overproduction of complex ergot alkaloid agroclavine.

Microbial cell factories (MCFs) and cell-free systems (CFSs) are generally considered as two unrelated approaches for the biosynthesis of biomolecules. In the current study, two systems were combined together for the overproduction of agroclavine (AC), a structurally complex ergot alkaloid. The whole biosynthetic pathway for AC was split into the early pathway and the late pathway at the point of the FAD-linked oxidoreductase EasE, which was reconstituted in an MCF (Aspergillus nidulans) and a four-enzyme CFS, respectively. The final titer of AC of this combined system is 1209 mg/L, which is the highest one that has been reported so far, to the best of our knowledge. The development of such a combined route could potentially avoid the limitations of both MCF and CFS systems, and boost the production of complex ergot alkaloids with polycyclic ring systems.

Beyond the cyclopropyl ring formation: fungal Aj_EasH catalyzes asymmetric hydroxylation of ergot alkaloids.

Ergot alkaloids (EAs) are among the most important bioactive natural products. FeII/α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase Aj_EasH from Aspergillus japonicus is responsible for the formation of the cyclopropyl ring of the ergot alkaloid (EA) cycloclavine (4). Herein we reconstituted the biosynthesis of 4 in vitro from prechanoclavine (1) for the first time. Additionally, an unexpected activity of asymmetric hydroxylation at the C-4 position of EA compound festuclavine (5) for Aj_EasH was revealed. Furthermore, Aj_EasH also catalyzes the hydroxylation of two more EAs 9,10-dihydrolysergol (6) and elymoclavine (7). Thus, our results proved that Aj_EasH is a promiscuous and bimodal dioxygenase that catalyzes both the formation of cyclopropyl ring in 4 and the asymmetric hydroxylation of EAs. Molecular docking (MD) revealed the substrate-binding mode as well as the catalytic mechanism of asymmetric hydroxylation, suggesting more EAs could potentially be recognized and hydroxylated by Aj_EasH. Overall, the newly discovered activity empowered Aj_EasH with great potential for producing more diverse and bioactive EA derivatives. KEY POINTS: • Aj_EasH was revealed to be a promiscuous and bimodal FeII/α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase. • Aj_EasH converted festuclavine, 9,10-dihydrolysergol, and elymoclavine to their hydroxylated derivatives. • The catalytic mechanism of Aj_EasH for hydroxylation was analyzed by molecular docking.

Whole-Cell Biotransformation of Penicillin G by a Three-Enzyme Co-expression System with Engineered Deacetoxycephalosporin†C Synthase.

Deacetoxycephalosporin C synthase (DAOCS) catalyzes the transformation of penicillin G to phenylacetyl-7-aminodeacetoxycephalosporanic acid (G-7-ADCA) for which it depends on 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) as co-substrate. However, the low activity of DAOCS and the expense of 2OG restricts its practical applications in the production of G-7-ADCA. Herein, a rational design campaign was performed on a DAOCS from Streptomyces clavuligerus (scDAOCS) in the quest to construct novel expandases. The resulting mutants showed 25∼58 % increase in activity compared to the template. The dominant DAOCS variants were then embedded into a three-enzyme co-expression system, consisting of a catalase and an L-glutamic oxidase for the generation of 2OG, to convert penicillin G to G-7-ADCA in E. coli. The engineered whole-cell enzyme cascade was applied to an up-scaled reaction, exhibiting a yield of G-7-ADCA up to 39.21 mM (14.6 g ⋅ L-1 ) with a conversion of 78.42 mol %. This work highlights the potential of the integrated whole-cell system that may inspire further research on green and efficient production of 7-ADCA.

Biosynthesis of ß-lactam nuclei in yeast.

We have engineered brewer's yeast as a general platform for de novo synthesis of diverse ß-lactam nuclei starting from simple sugars, thereby enabling ready access to a number of structurally different antibiotics of significant pharmaceutical importance. The biosynthesis of ß-lactam nuclei has received much attention in recent years, while rational engineering of non-native antibiotics-producing microbes to produce ß-lactam nuclei remains challenging. Benefited by the integration of heterologous biosynthetic pathways and rationally designed enzymes that catalyze hydrolysis and ring expansion reactions, we succeeded in constructing synthetic yeast cell factories which produce antibiotic cephalosporin C (CPC, 170.1 ± 4.9 µg/g DCW) and the downstream ß-lactam nuclei, including 6-amino penicillanic acid (6-APA, 5.3 ± 0.2 mg/g DCW), 7-amino cephalosporanic acid (7-ACA, 6.2 ± 1.1 µg/g DCW) as well as 7-amino desacetoxy cephalosporanic acid (7-ADCA, 1.7 ± 0.1 mg/g DCW). This work established a Saccharomyces cerevisiae platform capable of synthesizing multiple ß-lactam nuclei by combining natural and artificial enzymes, which serves as a metabolic tool to produce valuable ß-lactam intermediates and new antibiotics.

Tuning an Imine Reductase for the Asymmetric Synthesis of Azacycloalkylamines by Concise Structure-Guided Engineering.

Although imine reductases (IREDs) are emerging as attractive reductive aminases (RedAms), their substrate scope is still narrow, and rational engineering is rare. Focusing on hydrogen bond reorganization and cavity expansion, a concise strategy combining rational cavity design, combinatorial active-site saturation test (CAST), and thermostability engineering was designed, that transformed the weakly active IR-G36 into a variant M5 with superior performance for the synthesis of (R)-3-benzylamino-1-Boc-piperidine, with a 4193-fold improvement in catalytic efficiency, a 16.2 °C improvement in Tm , and a significant increase in the e.e. value from 78 % (R) to >99 % (R). M5 exhibits broad substrate scope for the synthesis of diverse azacycloalkylamines, and the reaction was demonstrated on a hectogram-scale under industrially relevant conditions. Our study provides a compelling example of the preparation of versatile and efficient IREDs, with exciting opportunities in medicinal and process chemistry as well as synthetic biology.

Overproduction of medicinal ergot alkaloids based on a fungal platform.

Privileged ergot alkaloids (EAs) produced by the fungal genus Claviceps are used to treat a wide range of diseases. However, their use and research have been hampered by the challenging genetic engineering of Claviceps. Here we systematically refactored and rationally engineered the EA biosynthetic pathway in heterologous host Aspergillus nidulans by using a Fungal-Yeast-Shuttle-Vector protocol. The obtained strains allowed the production of diverse EAs and related intermediates, including prechanoclavine (PCC, 333.8 mg/L), chanoclavine (CC, 241.0 mg/L), agroclavine (AC, 78.7 mg/L), and festuclavine (FC, 99.2 mg/L), etc. This fungal platform also enabled the access to the methyl-oxidized EAs (MOEAs), including elymoclavine (EC), lysergic acid (LA), dihydroelysergol (DHLG), and dihydrolysergic acid (DHLA), by overexpressing a P450 enzyme CloA. Furthermore, by optimizing the P450 electron transfer (ET) pathway and using multi-copy of cloA, the titers of EC and DHLG have been improved by 17.3- and 9.4-fold, respectively. Beyond our demonstration of A. nidulans as a robust platform for EA overproduction, our study offers a proof of concept for engineering the eukaryotic P450s-contained biosynthetic pathways in a filamentous fungal host.

Actinomycetes-derived imine reductases with a preference towards bulky amine substrates.

Since imine reductases (IREDs) were reported to catalyze the reductive amination reactions, they became particularly attractive for producing chiral amines. Though diverse ketones and aldehydes have been proved to be excellent substrates of IREDs, bulky amines have been rarely transformed. Here we report the usage of an Increasing-Molecule-Volume-Screening to identify a group of IREDs (IR-G02, 21, and 35) competent for accepting bulky amine substrates. IR-G02 shows an excellent substrate scope, which is applied to synthesize over 135 amine molecules as well as a range of APIs' substructures. The crystal structure of IR-G02 reveals the determinants for altering the substrate preference. Finally, we demonstrate a gram-scale synthesis of an analogue of the API sensipar via a kinetic resolution approach, which displays ee >99%, total turnover numbers of up to 2087, and space time yield up to 18.10 g L-1 d-1.

A hybrid system for the overproduction of complex ergot alkaloid chanoclavine.

Synthetic biology-based methods (Sbio) and chemical synthesis (Csyn) are two independent approaches that are both widely used for synthesizing biomolecules. In the current study, two systems were combined for the overproduction of chanoclavine (CC), a structurally complex ergot alkaloid. The whole synthetic pathway for CC was split into three sections: enzymatic synthesis of 4-Br-Trp (4-Bromo-trptophan) using cell-lysate catalysis (CLC), chemical synthesis of prechanoclavine (PCC) from 4-Br-Trp, and overproduction CC from PCC using a whole-cell catalysis (WCC) platform. The final titer of the CC is over 3 g/L in this Sbio-Csyn hybrid system, the highest yield reported so far, to the best of our knowledge. The development of such a combined route could potentially avoid the limitations of both Sbio and Csyn systems and boost the overproduction of complex natural products.

TerC Is a Multifunctional and Promiscuous Flavoprotein Monooxygenase That Catalyzes Bimodal Oxidative Transformations.

The flavoprotein monooxygenase (FPMO) TerC is encoded by all known cyclopentene biosynthetic gene clusters. It can catalyze oxidative dearomatization toward a series of 6-HM analogues and further induces different skeletal distortions to form either benzoquinone or pyrone by bimodal reaction cascades, which is only governed by the C7 substitutions. Beyond our study demonstrated bimodal reaction cascades and advanced the biosynthetic knowledge of fungal cyclopentenes, this work also sets the stage for the bioengineering of 6-HM polyketides.

Heterologous Production of Unnatural Flavipucine Family Products Provides Insights into Flavipucines Biosynthesis.

Heterologous expression of the flavipucine biosynthetic gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans led to the production of flavipucine (1) and dihydroisoflavipucine (3), as well as six unusual flavipucine related products containing three classes of heterocycles. This combined with gene inactivation, chemical complementation, and transcriptome analysis demonstrated unprecedented ways to form 2-pyridone and 2-pyrone structures by the oxidative rearrangements of pyrrolinone precursors as well as provided insights into the biosynthesis of this important class of natural products.

De novo biosynthesis and gram-level production of m-cresol in Aspergillus nidulans.

The industrially important meta-cresol (m-cresol, 3-methylphenol) is mainly produced from fossil resources by chemical methods. The microbial production of m-cresol was rarely investigated. Herein, we constructed a platform for the overproduction of m-cresol in a modified fungus Aspergillus nidulans FGSC no. A1145∆ST∆EM, which gave a gram-level titer using starch as carbon resource. For the biosynthesis of m-cresol, the 6-methyl salicylic acid synthase (MSAS)-encoding gene patK and 6-methyl salicylic acid decarboxylase-encoding gene patG from A. clavatus were co-expressed in the host A. nidulans. Multiple strategies, including promotor engineering, gene multiplication, and fed-batch fermentation, were applied to raise the production of m-cresol, which resulted in the titers of 1.29 g/L in shaking flasks and 2.03 g/L in fed-batch culture. The chassis cell A. nidulans A1145∆ST∆EM was proved to possess better tolerance to m-cresol than yeast, as it could grow in the liquid medium containing up to 2.5 g/L of m-cresol. These results showed that A. nidulans has great potential to be further engineered for industrial production of m-cresol.Key points• m-Cresol was de novo biosynthesized by a fungal chassis cell Aspergillus nidulans.• Promoter engineering and gene multiplication implemented the fine-tuned genes expression.• The titer of m-cresol reached 2.03 g/L via fed-batch culture.