Thioesterase domain, polyketide synthase

Figure 5 Domain organization of the erythromycin polyketide synthase. Putative domains are represented as circles and the structural residues are ignored. Each module incorporates the essential KS, AT, and ACP domains, while all but one include optional reductive activities. AT, acyltransferase ACP, acyl carrier protein KS, (3-ketoacyl synthase KR, P-ketoacyl reductase DH, dehydratase ER, enoyl reductase TE, thioesterase.

Gokhale, R.S., Hunziker, D., Cane, D.E. and Khosla, C. (1999) Mechanism and specificity of the terminal thioesterase domain from the erythromycin polyketide synthase. Chemistry Biology, 6, 117. 

Lu, H., Tsai, S.-C., Khosla, C. and Cane, D.E. (2002) Expression, site-directed mutagenesis, and steady state kinetic analysis of the terminal thioesterase domain of the methymycin/picromycin polyketide synthase. Biochemistry, 41, 12590-12597. 

Boddy, C.N., Schneider, T.L., Hotta, K. et al. (2003) Epothilone C macrocyclization and hydrolysis are catalyzed by the isolated thioesterase domain of epothilone polyketide synthase. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 125, 3428-3429. 

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... 

Figure 21-11 Catalytic domains within three polypeptide chains of the modular polyketide synthase that forms 6-deoxyerythronolide B, the aglycone of the widely used antibiotic erythromycin. The domains are labeled as for fatty acid synthases AT, acyltransferase ACP, acyl carrier protein KS, 3-ketoacyl-ACP synthase KR, ketoreductase DH, dehydrase ER, enoylreductase TE, thioesterase. After Pieper et al.338 Courtesy of Chaitan Khosla.

Figure 9 Construction of bimodular polyketide synthases, (a) Chromosomal repositioning of the thioesterase domain from the C-terminus of module 6 to the end of module 2 in the erythromycin PKS leads to production of triketide lactones and the disruption of erythromycin biosynthesis, (b) DEBS 1-TE contains a fusion within the ACP domains of modules 2 and 6. In Saccharopolyspora erythraea and Streptomyces coelicolor the construct produced both propionate and acetate-derived lactones, (c) DEBS 1+TE contains a fusion between ACP2 and the thioesterase domain. In S. coelicolor, the protein biosynthesized the same lactones.

The molecular backbone of the antibiotic erythromycin A [6-desoxy-erythronolide B (3)] is built up repetitively from one propionyl-coenzyme A (1) and six methyl-malonyl-coenzyme A (2) constituents by the action of polyketide-synthase, which itself consists of three proteins (DEBS 1 -3) (Schemes 1 and 2). Each protein contains two modules with several separate, cat-alytically active domains. In the first section, DEBS 1 carries an additional loading zone, and DEBS 3 contains a thioesterase in the final segment, catalyzing the decoupling of the product by building the lactone ring [6],... 

Figure 1 Hypothetical pentaketide biosynthetic system, which illustrates the enzymatic logic of type I modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) and the catalytic role of acyl transferase (AT) domains. Each AT domain selects substrates from the cellular pool and tethers them as thioesters to acyl carrier protein (ACP) domains. In a typical PKS module, the AT and ACP domains are present in all modules. The ketosynthase (KS) domain is present in all chain extension modules. The dehydratase (DH), enoyl reductase (ER), and ketoreductase (KR) domains are optional domains. The final thioesterase (TE) domain catalyzes the release of the product from the PKS.

Predicting the Mode of Chain Release by Thioesterase Domains of Polyketide Synthases... 

D.E., Khosla, C. Stroud, R.M. Grystal structure of the macrocycle-forming thioesterase domain of the erythromycin polyketide synthase versatility from a unique substrate channel. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 14808-14813 (2001). 

Since the PKS (polyketide synthase) gene cluster for actinorhodin (act), an antibiotic produced by Streptomyces coelicolor[ 109], was cloned, more than 20 different gene clusters encoding polyketide biosynthetic enzymes have been isolated from various organisms, mostly actinomycetes, and characterized [98, 100]. Bacterial PKSs are classified into two broad types based on gene organization and biosynthetic mechanisms [98, 100, 102]. In modular PKSs (or type I), discrete multifunctional enzymes control the sequential addition of thioester units and their subsequent modification to produce macrocyclic compounds (or complex polyketides). Type I PKSs are exemplified by 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase (DEBS), which catalyzes the formation of the macrolactone portion of erythromycin A, an antibiotic produced by Saccharopolyspora erythraea. There are 7 different active-site domains in DEBS, but a given module contains only 3 to 6 active sites. Three domains, acyl carrier protein (ACP), acyltransferase (AT), and P-ketoacyl-ACP synthase (KS), constitute a minimum module. Some modules contain additional domains for reduction of p-carbons, e.g., P-ketoacyl-ACP reductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enoyl reductase (ER). The thioesterase-cyclase (TE) protein is present only at the end of module 6. 

Modular PKSs are large multifunctional enzymes. Active sites (domains) within these enzymes ketosynthases (KS), acyltransferases (AT), dehydratases (DH), enoyl reductases (ER), ketoreductases (KR), acyl carrier proteins (AGP) and thioesterases (TE) are organized into modules such that each module catalyzes the stereospecific addition of a new monomer onto a growing polyketide chain and also sets the reduction level of the carbon atoms of the resulting intermediate [70]. In 1994, the heterologous expression of the complete erythromycin polyketide synthase was accomplished. The recombinant... 

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