Nonprocessive [2 + 2]e- off-loading reductase domains from mycobacterial nonribosomal peptide synthetases.

In mycobacteria, polyketide synthases and nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) produce complex lipidic metabolites by using a thio-template mechanism of catalysis. In this study, we demonstrate that off-loading reductase (R) domain of mycobacterial NRPSs performs two consecutive [2 + 2]e(-) reductions to release thioester-bound lipopeptides as corresponding alcohols, using a nonprocessive mechanism of catalysis. The first crystal structure of an R domain from Mycobacterium tuberculosis NRPS provides strong support to this mechanistic model and suggests that the displacement of intermediate would be required for cofactor recycling. We show that 4e(-) reductases produce alcohols through a committed aldehyde intermediate, and the reduction of this intermediate is at least 10 times more efficient than the thioester-substrate. Structural and biochemical studies also provide evidence for the conformational changes associated with the reductive cycle. Further, we show that the large substrate-binding pocket with a hydrophobic platform accounts for the remarkable substrate promiscuity of these domains. Our studies present an elegant example of the recruitment of a canonical short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase family member as an off-loading domain in the context of assembly-line enzymology.

Delineating the reaction mechanism of reductase domains of Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases from mycobacteria.

Substrate binding to enzymes often follows a precise order where catalysis is accomplished through programmed conformational changes. Short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) enzymes follow sequential order 'bi-bi' reaction kinetics. The mechanistic study of a SDR homolog, reductase (R) domain, from multifunctional enzymes, e.g. Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases (NRPSs) and Polyketide Synthases (PKSs) has revealed that it reductively releases 4'-phosphopantetheinyl arm-tethered peptidyl product. We report that the R-domains of NRPSs from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (RNRP) and Mycobacterium smegmatis (RGPL) do not strictly adhere to the obligatory mode of catalysis performed by SDRs, but instead can carry out reductive catalysis of substrate following random bi-bi reaction mechanism as deciphered by NMR and SAXS studies. The crucial conformational change associated with NADPH binding necessary to achieve catalytically competent conformation is also delineated by SAXS studies. Using ITC, we have demonstrated that mutation of catalytic tyrosine to phenylalanine in R-domains results in 3-4-fold decrease in affinity for NADPH and attribute this phenomenon to loss of the noncovalent cation-π interactions present between the tyrosine and nicotinamide ring. We propose that the adaptation to an alternative theme of bi-bi catalytic mechanism enables the R-domains to process the substrates transferred by upstream domains and maintain assembly-line enzymology.

Dissecting the functional role of polyketide synthases in Dictyostelium discoideum: biosynthesis of the differentiation regulating factor 4-methyl-5-pentylbenzene-1,3-diol.

Dictyostelium discoideum exhibits the largest repository of polyketide synthase (PKS) proteins of all known genomes. However, the functional relevance of these proteins in the biology of this organism remains largely obscure. On the basis of computational, biochemical, and gene expression studies, we propose that the multifunctional Dictyostelium PKS (DiPKS) protein DiPKS1 could be involved in the biosynthesis of the differentiation regulating factor 4-methyl-5-pentylbenzene-1,3-diol (MPBD). Our cell-free reconstitution studies of a novel acyl carrier protein Type III PKS didomain from DiPKS1 revealed a crucial role of protein-protein interactions in determining the final biosynthetic product. Whereas the Type III PKS domain by itself primarily produces acyl pyrones, the presence of the interacting acyl carrier protein domain modulates the catalytic activity to produce the alkyl resorcinol scaffold of MPBD. Furthermore, we have characterized an O-methyltransferase (OMT12) from Dictyostelium with the capability to modify this resorcinol ring to synthesize a variant of MPBD. We propose that such a modification in vivo could in fact provide subtle variations in biological function and specificity. In addition, we have performed systematic computational analysis of 45 multidomain PKSs, which revealed several unique features in DiPKS proteins. Our studies provide a new perspective in understanding mechanisms by which metabolic diversity could be generated by combining existing functional scaffolds.