Involvement of common intermediate 3-hydroxy-L-kynurenine in chromophore biosynthesis of quinomycin family antibiotics

Quinomycin antibiotics, represented by echinomycin, are an important class of antitumor antibiotics. We have recently succeeded in identification of biosynthetic gene clusters of echinomycin and SW-163D, and have achieved heterologous production of echinomycin in Escherichia coli. In addition, we have engineered echinomycin non-ribosomal peptide synthetase to generate echinomycin derivatives. However, the biosynthetic pathways of intercalative chromophores quinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid (QXC) and 3-hydroxyquinaldic acid (HQA), which are important for biological activity, were not fully elucidated. Here, we report experiments involving incorporation of a putative advanced precursor, (2S, 3R)-[6'-H-2]-3-hydroxy-L-kynurenine, and functional analysis of the enzymes Swb1 and Swb2 responsible for late-stage biosynthesis of HQA. On the basis of these experimental results, we propose biosynthetic pathways for both QXC and HQA through the common intermediate 3-hydroxy-L-kynurenine. The Journal of Antibiotics (2011) 64, 117-122; doi:10.10381ja.2010.142; published online 24 November 2010