Discovery of McbB, an Enzyme Catalyzing the β-Carboline Skeleton Construction in the Marinacarboline Biosynthetic Pathway
作者:Qi Chen、Changtao Ji、Yongxiang Song、Hongbo Huang、Junying Ma、Xinpeng Tian、Jianhua Ju
DOI:10.1002/anie.201303449
日期:2013.9.16
Three genes, mcbABC, that drive the biosynthesis of marinacarbolines, have been elucidated through genome mining, gene inactivation, heterologous expression, feeding, and site‐directed mutagenesis experiments. McbB is highlighted as a novel enzyme for the β‐carboline core construction, which involves a Pictet–Spengler cyclization process and requiring E97 for biochemical activity.
The beta-carboline (beta C) alkaloids occur throughout nature and exhibit diverse biological activities. In contrast to beta C alkaloid synthesis in plants, the biosynthesis in microorganisms remains poorly understood. The recently reported McbB from Marinactinospora thermotolerans is a novel enzyme proposed to catalyze the Pictet-Spengler (PS) reaction of L-tryptophan and oxaloacetaldehyde to produce the beta C scaffold of marinacarbolines. In this study, we solved the crystal structure of McbB complexed with L-tryptophan at 2.48 angstrom resolution, which revealed the novel protein folding of McbB and the totally different structure from those of other PS condensation catalyzing enzymes, such as strictosidine synthase and norcoclaurine synthase from plants. Structural analysis and site-directed mutagenesis confirmed that the previously proposed catalytic Glu97 at the active-site center functions as an acid and base catalyst. Remarkably, the structure-based mutants R72A and H87A, with expanded active-site cavities, newly accepted bulky phenylglyoxal as the aldehyde substrate, to produce 1-benzoyl-3-carboxy-beta-carboline.