Acyl transfer domain, polyketide synthase

Phosphopantetheine tethering is a posttranslational modification that takes place on the active site serine of carrier proteins - acyl carrier proteins (ACPs) and peptidyl carrier proteins (PCPs), also termed thiolation (T) domains - during the biosynthesis of fatty acids (FAs) (use ACPs) (Scheme 23), polyketides (PKs) (use ACPs) (Scheme 24), and nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) (use T domain) (Scheme 25). It is only after the covalent attachment of the 20-A Ppant arm, required for facile transfer of the various building block constituents of the molecules to be formed, that the carrier proteins can interact with the other components of the different multi-modular assembly lines (fatty acid synthases (FASs), polyketide synthases (PKSs), and nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs)) on which the compounds of interest are assembled. The structural organizations of FASs, PKSs, and NRPSs are analogous and can be divided into three broad classes the types I, II, and III systems. Even though the role of the carrier proteins is the same in all systems, their mode of action differs from one system to another. In the type I systems the carrier proteins usually only interact in cis with domains to which they are physically attached, with the exception of the PPTases and external type II thioesterase (TEII) domains that act in trans. In the type II systems the carrier proteins selectively interact... 

DIF biosynthesis has been investigated recently (52), and the protein Steely has been described as a key enzyme. Steely consists of six fatty acid synthase (FAS) catalytic domains and a C-terminal polyketide synthase (PKS). The N-terminal acyl products of steely are transferred to the C-terminal PKS active sites, which then catalyze polyketide extension and cyclisation. The result is a phlorocaprophenone, which is chlorinated subsequently and finally methylated. 

Fig. 3. Phosphopantetheinylation of the acyl carrier protein (AGP) domain of a polyketide synthase. In order to be active, polyketide synthases must be post-translationally modified by a family of enzymes called phosphopantetheine transferases (PPTases). These enzymes transfer the 4 -phospho-pantetheine arm of Coenzyme A to an active site serine residue in the AGP...

The basic principle of polyketide assembly is highly related to that of fatty acid biosynthesis [14, 16]. In both biosynthetic systems, an acyl-primed ketosynthase (KS) catalyzes chain extension by decarboxylative Claisen condensation with malonate activated by its attachment to coenzyme A or an acyl carrier protein (ACP) via a thioester bond (Scheme 2.2). hi fatty acid synthases (FASs), the resulting ketone is rednced to the corresponding alcohol by a ketore-ductase (KR), dehydrated by action of a dehydratase (DH) to give the alkene with snbseqnent donble-bond reduction by an enoyl rednctase (ER) yielding the saturated system (cf. Section 3.2). The latter can then be transferred onto the KS domain and enter the next cycle of chain extension and complete rednction. This homologation process facilitates the assembly of long-chain satnrated fatty acids, for example, palmitic acid, after seven cycles, which will ultimately be released from the catalytic system by saponification of the... 

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