Journal
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
Volume 10, Issue 4, Pages 251-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.1456
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Funding
- US National Institutes of Health grant [AI014937]
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Nonribosomal peptide synthetases are versatile engines of bioactive natural product biosynthesis that function according to the multiple carrier thiotemplate mechanism. C-terminal thioesterase (TE) domains of these giant modular proteins typically catalyze product release by hydrolysis or macrocyclization. We now report an unprecedented, dual-function TE that is involved in the biosynthesis of nocardicin A, which is the paradigm monocyclic beta-lactam antibiotic. Contrary to our expectation, a stereodefined series of potential peptide substrates for the nocardicin TE domain failed to undergo hydrolysis. The stringent discrimination against peptide intermediates was overcome by prior monocyclic beta-lactam formation at an L-seryl site. Kinetic data are interpreted such that the TE domain acts as a gatekeeper to hold the assembling peptide on an upstream domain until b-lactam formation takes place and then rapidly catalyzes epimerization, which has not been observed previously as a TE catalytic function, and thioesterase cleavage to discharge a fully fledged pentapeptide beta-lactam harboring nocardicin G, the universal precursor of the nocardicins.
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