Probing the selectivity of β-hydroxylation reactions in non-ribosomal peptide synthesis using analytical ultracentrifugation

Bashkim Kokona, Emily S. Winesett, A. Nikolai von Krusenstiern, Max J. Cryle, Robert Fairman, Louise K. Charkoudian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Bacteria and fungi use non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) to produce peptides of broad structural diversity and biological activity, many of which have proven to be of great importance for human health. The impressive diversity of non-ribosomal peptides originates in part from the action of tailoring enzymes that modify the structures of single amino acids and/or the mature peptide. Studying the interplay between tailoring enzymes and the peptidyl carrier proteins (PCPs) that anchor the substrates is challenging owing to the transient and complex nature of the protein-protein interactions. Using sedimentation velocity (SV) methods, we studied the collaboration between the PCPs and cytochrome P450 enzyme that results in the installation of beta-hydroxylated amino acid precursors in the biosynthesis of the depsipeptide skyllamycin. We show that SV methods developed for the analytical ultracentrifuge are ideally suited for a quantitative exploration of PCP-enzyme equilibrium interactions. Our results suggest that the PCP itself and the presence of substrate covalently tethered to the PCP together facilitate productive PCP-P450 interactions, thereby revealing one of nature s intricate strategies for installing interesting functionalities using natural product synthetases.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)42-51
Number of pages10
JournalAnalytical Biochemistry
Volume495
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Feb 2016

Keywords

  • Skyllamycin
  • Non-ribosomal peptide synthetase
  • Cytochrome P450
  • Peptidyl carrier protein
  • Analytical ultracentrifugation
  • Sedimentation velocity

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