Specialized Metabolites from Methylotrophic Proteobacteria Aaron W
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Specialized Metabolites from Methylotrophic Proteobacteria Aaron W. Puri* Department of Chemistry and the Henry Eyring Center for Cell and Genome Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. *Correspondence: [email protected] htps://doi.org/10.21775/cimb.033.211 Abstract these compounds and strategies for determining Biosynthesized small molecules known as special- their biological functions. ized metabolites ofen have valuable applications Te explosion in bacterial genome sequences in felds such as medicine and agriculture. Con- available in public databases as well as the availabil- sequently, there is always a demand for novel ity of bioinformatics tools for analysing them has specialized metabolites and an understanding of revealed that many bacterial species are potentially their bioactivity. Methylotrophs are an underex- untapped sources for new molecules (Cimerman- plored metabolic group of bacteria that have several cic et al., 2014). Tis includes organisms beyond growth features that make them enticing in terms those traditionally relied upon for natural product of specialized metabolite discovery, characteriza- discovery, and recent studies have shown that tion, and production from cheap feedstocks such examining the biosynthetic potential of new spe- as methanol and methane gas. Tis chapter will cies indeed reveals new classes of compounds examine the predicted biosynthetic potential of (Pidot et al., 2014; Pye et al., 2017). Tis strategy these organisms and review some of the specialized is complementary to synthetic biology approaches metabolites they produce that have been character- focused on activating BGCs that are not normally ized so far. expressed under laboratory conditions in strains traditionally used for natural product discovery, such as Streptomyces (Rutledge and Challis, 2015). Introduction Tis chapter will focus on the methylotrophic Specialized metabolites, also known as secondary Proteobacteria, which use reduced carbon com- metabolites or natural products, form the basis of pounds with no carbon–carbon bonds as their many bioactive compounds essential to modern sole sources of carbon and energy. Specifcally, the medicine and agriculture (Demain and Sanchez, Proteobacteria are some of the most well-studied 2009; Cantrell et al., 2012; Newman and Cragg, organisms within this metabolic group (Chis- 2016). Tis makes intuitive sense because produc- toserdova et al., 2009). While several molecules tion of these compounds is genetically encoded in have been isolated from methylotrophic Proteo- biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and therefore bacteria that have had an impact on the feld of the resulting structures have had millennia to natural products (Kenney and Rosenzweig, 2018a; evolve their roles. Te great value of these mol- Khmelenina et al., 2015), our understanding of the ecules in manipulating biological systems means specialized metabolism of these organisms is still there is a constant demand for new sources of in its infancy. Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. (2019) Vol. 33 caister.com/cimb 212 | Puri Methylotrophic bacteria as an biosynthetic potential in a past analysis of bacte- underexplored resource for rial genomes (Cimermancic et al., 2014). Many specialized metabolite discovery Alphaproteobacteria including methylotrophic Methylotrophic bacteria are an atractive source for species rely on the ethylmalonyl-CoA pathway to the discovery of new specialized metabolites for assimilate acetyl-CoA into central metabolism, and several reasons. this pathway involves high fux through CoA-linked intermediates that are also ofen used in the synthe- 1 Obligate methylotrophs, including many spe- sis of specialized metabolites such as polyketides cies of methane-oxidizing bacteria, may have (Alber, 2011). Tis makes the exploration of the been overlooked during traditional ‘grind and specialized metabolism of these organisms particu- fnd’ searches for new compounds that focused larly intriguing. on the isolation of specifc genera like Strepto- Bacteriocin and terpene BGCs were most myces using rich media. commonly predicted within the categories clas- 2 Te lack of complex carbon substrate in sifed by the antibiotic and secondary metabolite methylotroph growth medium can aid in the analysis shell (antiSMASH) (Blin et al., 2017). rapid analysis of new compounds produced However, the majority of predicted clusters were by a culture without laborious prefractiona- detected using ClusterFinder, which relies on more tion procedures, which may also help in high probabilistic (and less stringent) methods for BGC throughput screening approaches. identifcation (Cimermancic et al., 2014). Tis 3 Te chemically defned nature of the growth could suggest that methylotrophs produce diferent medium and simplicity of the carbon source compounds than those made by traditionally stud- also allows substrates with heavy labels such as ied organisms, which would be promising for the 15 13 13 NO3 and CH4 or CH3OH to be used for discovery of new classes of compounds. However, minimal cost, which can aid in structural elu- sequence homology-based comparisons to char- cidation using mass spectrometry and NMR. acterized BGCs and experimental verifcation will 4 If a molecule with atractive properties is be essential to exploring the hypothesis that these identifed, its methylotroph producer can gene clusters are producing novel products. be grown at scale using a feedstock such as methane or methanol, both of which have recently re-emerged as substrates of interest in Intercellular chemical industrial microbiology (Schrader et al., 2009; communication Henard and Guarnieri, 2018). Quorum sensing It is therefore worthwhile to discover more Quorum sensing (QS) allows bacteria to con- molecules produced by this ecologically important trol gene expression in a cell density-dependent group of bacteria. manner. In Proteobacteria, a canonical QS signal Genome sequencing eforts supported by enti- is the acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL), which ties including the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) can vary in its acyl chain length, saturation, and oxi- and Organization for Methanotroph Genome dation. Tese signals are produced by LuxI-family Analysis (OMeGA) have enabled a detailed exami- acyl-HSL synthases, and detected by LuxR-family nation of the predicted biosynthetic potential of receptor/transcription factors. For reviews please many methylotrophic species (Fig. 12.1). Amongst see Papenfort and Bassler (2016) as well as White- the strains analysed here, more BGCs are generally ley et al. (2017). predicted in methanotroph genomes compared Te frst QS system to be characterized in a meth- with the genomes of non-methanotrophic ylotroph was in the model strain Methylobacterium methylotrophs. Overall the Alphaproteobacteria, extorquens AM1 (Penalver et al., 2006). Research- including members of the Methylobacterium genus ers found that AM1 possesses two LuxI-family among the non-methanotrophs, appear to possess synthases, termed MlaI and MsaI. While MsaI pro- a large number of predicted BGCs. Te Methylobac- duces the short chain acyl-HSLs C6- and C8-HSL, terium genus was also highlighted for its substantial MlaI produces the more unusual unsaturated long Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. (2019) Vol. 33 caister.com/cimb | Figure 1. Methylotroph Specialized Metabolites 213 Figure 12.1 Predicted biosynthetic gene clusters in genomes of methylotrophic Proteobacteria. Predictions were made using antiSMASH 4.1.0 (Blin et al., 2017) with ClusterFinder (CF) (Cimermancic et al., 2014) enabled with default settings. HSL, homoserine lactone; NRPS, non-ribosomal peptide synthetase; PKS, polyketide synthase. Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. (2019) Vol. 33 caister.com/cimb 214 | Puri chain molecules 7Z-C14-HSL and 2E,7Z-C14-HSL tundrenone (see below) (Puri et al., 2018). Te fact only when AM1 is grown on methanol (Table that tundrenone is produced in a QS-dependent 12.1). Te short chain acyl-HSLs produced by M. manner fts the paradigm that QS systems ofen extorquens AM1 increase the production of exopol- activate the production of extracellular factors such ysaccharide (Penalver et al., 2006), and therefore as antibiotics (McGowan et al., 1995; Duerkop could have a role in bioflm formation. In support et al., 2009) and proteases (Pearson et al., 1997), of this, recently a highly homologous QS system in thereby allowing bacteria to afect their surround- a Methylobacterium populi strain was found to regu- ing environment at high cell density. late the structure and adherence of bioflms made It will be exciting to characterize more methy- by this organism (Morohoshi et al., 2018). lotroph QS systems in the future and determine Many Methylobacterium species have been their biological roles. It should be noted that found to produce acyl-HSLs as detected by bio- methylotrophs occupy diverse ecological niches, assays (Poonguzhali et al., 2007). In one study including both acidic (Dedysh et al., 2000) and researchers found that the orange tree symbiont alkaline (Khmelenina et al., 1997) environments. Methylobacterium mesophilicum SR 1.6/6 produces Te HSL ring is subject to base-catalysed hydroly- several signals, including novel variants (Table sis (Schaefer et al., 2000; Dong et al., 2001), which 12.1) (Pomini et al., 2009). Tere is some evidence may provide one explanation for why methylo- that increased concentrations of these molecules trophs isolated from alkaline environments such as may regulate the transcription of metabolic genes some Methylomicrobium species do not possess