Understanding the Biosynthesis and Utilization of Non-Proteinogenic Amino Acids for the Production of Secondary Metabolites in Bacteria
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Understanding The Biosynthesis And Utilization Of Non-Proteinogenic Amino Acids For The Production Of Secondary Metabolites In Bacteria Author: Carl Victor Christianson Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/967 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2008 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry UNDERSTANDING THE BIOSYNTHESIS AND UTILIZATION OF NON-PROTEINOGENIC AMINO ACIDS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SECONDARY METABOLITES IN BACTERIA A dissertation by CARL VICTOR CHRISTIANSON Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2008 © Copyright by CARL VICTOR CHRISTIANSON 2008 Acknowledgements I would like to than the members of my thesis defense committee, Jianmin Gao, Larry McLaughlin, and James Morken for taking time to critically read this thesis and to attend my defense. I am grateful to Professor Steven Bruner for accepting me into his lab and for his guidance over the past 5 years. Steve fostered an atmosphere of scientific discussion that challenged me to constantly learn new things. I admire Steve’s steady demeanor and am grateful to him for keeping me grounded and headed in the right direction. I would like to thank Timothy Montavon for carefully reviewing this thesis. Tim also contributed the synthetic projects that benefited the work presented in this thesis. Tim has always been there for helpful scientific discussions in the four years that we have been working together. I have been fortunate to work with a good group of students in the Bruner lab. I would like to thank all the current and past members of the Bruner group. I would also like to than Deb Lynch who has helped me tremendously during my time at BC. I believe that the whole department would fall apart without her efforts. I thank her for her time, and for always having an open ear and full bowl of candy! Without the help and understanding of my family, I would not have been able to make it through these past five years. In particular I would like to thank my mother and father for always being there and believing in me. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Jolene. It is through her love and understanding that all this has been possible. I love you and to you I dedicate this thesis. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1. A Review of Cofactor Independent Electrophilic Catalysis 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 History of MIO 4 1.3 Ammonia Lyases 7 1.4 Structural Investigations of PAL 15 1.5 The Significance of -Amino Acids 24 1.6 MIO Dependent Aminomutases 29 1.7 Green Fluorescent Protein and Its Relation to MIO Enzymes 37 Chapter 2. The Structure of L-Tyrosine 2,3-Aminomutase From the C-1027 Enediyne Biosynthetic Pathway 2.1 Introduction 51 2.2 Crystallization and Structure Determination 56 2.3 The Overall Structure of SgTAM 57 2.4 The Active Site Containing MIO 59 2.5 Comparison of the SgTAM Active Site with Tyrosine Ammonia Lyase 64 2.6 Restricted Active Site of SgTAM 64 2.7 Recognition of the Substrate Tyrosine in SgTAM 65 2.8 Mechanistic Implications from the Structure of SgTAM 67 2.9 Comparison of SgTAM Active Site with Green Fluorescent Protein 68 v Chapter 3. The Mechanism of L-Tyrosine 2,3-Aminomutase and MIO Dependent Enzymes 3.1 Introduction 82 3.2 Mechanistic Probes of SgTAM 83 3.3 Synthesis of SgTAM Substrate Analogs 86 3.4 Inhibition Studies of the Substrate Analogs of SgTAM 87 3.5 Crystallization of SgTAM in the Presence of Substrate Analogs 88 3.6 Overall Structures of SgTAM bound to Analogs 89 3.7 Structures of Product Analogs Covalently Bound to MIO 89 3.8 Epoxide Analogs Bound to SgTAM 92 3.9 Mechanistic Conclusions of MIO Dependent Enzymes 93 Chapter 4. Investigation of LnmQ 4.1 Introduction 110 4.2 Leinamycin 112 4.3 Cloning of LnmQ, a D-Ala Specific A-Domain 113 4.4 Isolation and Purification of LnmQ 115 4.5 Selenomethionine preps of LnmQ 116 4.6 Substrate and Substrate Analog Studies with LnmQ 118 Chapter 5. Conclusions and Future Directions vi Table of Abbreviations A Adenine AIP 2-aminoindan-2-phosphonate Ala Alanine Arg Arginine Asn Asparagine ME beta-mercaptoethanol C Cytosine Cys Cysteine DMSO Dimethylsulfoxide DNA -D-2’-Deoxyribofuranosyl Nucleic Acid dNTPs Deoxyribonucleotide Triphosphates DTT Dithiothreitol G Guanine GFP Green Fluorescent Protein Gly Glycine HAL Histidine Ammonia Lyase HCA Hydroxycinnamic Acid His Histidine HPLC High Pressure Liquid Chromatography MIO 4-methylideneimidazole-5-one vii NRP Non-Ribosomal Peptide NRPS Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthetase OPA o-Phtalaldehyde PAL Phenylalanine Ammonia Lyase PAM Phenylalanine Aminomutase PCR Polymerase Chain Reaction Phe Phenylalanine PKS Polyketide Synthase PLP Pyridoxal Phosphate SAM S-Adenosylmethionine Se-Met Selenomethionine Ser Serine Sg Streptomyces globisporus T Thymine TAL Tyrosine Ammonia Lyase TAM Tyrosine Aminomutase TFA Trifluoroacetic Acid THF Tetrahydrofuran TMAO Trimethylamine-N-oxide Tyr Tyrosine viii Understanding The Biosynthesis And Utilization Of Non-Proteinogenic Amino Acids For The Production Of Secondary Metabolites In Bacteria Carl Victor Christianson Professor Steven D. Bruner October 24, 2008 Research Advisor Abstract Bacteria utilize complex enzymatic machinery to create diverse secondary metabolites. The architectural complexities of these small molecules are enhanced by nature’s ability to synthesize non-proteinogenic amino acids for incorporation into these scaffolds. Many of these natural products are utilized as therapeutic agents, and it would be advantageous to understand how the bacteria create various non-natural amino acid building blocks. With a greater understanding of these systems, engineering could be used to create libraries of potentially useful natural product analogs. The tyrosine aminomutase SgTAM from the soil bacteria Streptomyces globisporus catalyzes the formation of -tyrosine in the biosynthestic pathway of the antitumor enediyne C-1027. SgTAM is homologous to the histidine ammonia lyase family of enzymes whose activity is dependent on the methylideneimidazole-5-one (MIO) prosthetic group. Unlike the lyase enzymes, SgTAM catalyses additional chemical transformations resulting in an overall 2,3 amino shift in the substrate L- ix tyrosine to generate (S)--tyrosine. The precise mechanistic role of MIO in this novel family of aminomutases has not been established. We report the first X-ray crystal structure of an MIO based aminomutase and confirm the structural homology of SgTAM to ammonia lyases. Further work with mechanistic inhibitors provide structural evidence of the mechanism by which MIO dependent enzymes operate. We have also investigated LnmQ, an adenylation domain in the biosynthetic pathway of leinamycin. Leinamycin is an antitumor antibiotic that was isolated from soil samples in 1989. LnmQ is responsible for the specific recognition of D-alanine and subsequent activation as an aminoacyl adenylate species. We have cloned the gene into a DNA vector and expressed it in E. coli. Upon purification of the protein, crystallization conditions have been tested. Synthesis of an inhibitor that mimics the aminoacyl adenylate product catalyzed by LnmQ has been completed. Crystallization with this inhibitor will provide better quality crystals and a catalytically informative co-complex. x Chapter 1: A Review of Cofactor Independent Electrophilic Catalysis 1 1.1 Introduction The study of enzymes and the reactions they catalyze has been an active field of research since the mid-19th century.1 Originally, enzyme activity was thought to be a ‘living’ process that was inherent in the cellular cultures being investigated; it was not until the work of Buchner regarding the fermentation of sugars, that proteins, not whole cells, were shown to be responsible for this activity. This work began a period of research focused more on the structure and nature of these enzyme catalysts than the catalyzed reaction. Much work was done using the relatively new technique of X-ray crystallography to obtain a ‘snap-shot’ of the enzyme on a molecular level. The first X-ray structure of a complete protein was not obtained until 1960 when the structure of hemoglobin was solved by Perutz.2 Myoglobin had been solved in 1958, but was not completely modeled until 1961. Having X-ray crystallography as a tool at the enzymologist’s disposal would cause many new questions to arise. Enzymologists were no longer satisfied with only knowing the starting materials and products associated with the enzymatic transformations. The question of how these macro-catalysts were facilitating the reactions being observed was now becoming an increasingly important question. The field of mechanistic enzymology evolved, using the tools of the enzymologist and the organic chemist. The study of mechanistic organic chemistry was being applied to the transformations being observed in these biological systems. Like all fields in the physical sciences, the continual advance of technology has benefited the field of mechanistic enzymology a great deal. To be able to structurally 2 characterize molecules on the range of kilo-daltons at the molecular level has allowed for a clear understanding of many reaction processes. However, it is not always clear what is occurring in reaction pathways, and often times, conclusions drawn from structural data alone can be misleading. Mistakes in the literature will go unchallenged for years until a new technique or the application of other techniques is able to shed light on the problem.3 One problem that has drawn a great deal of interest over the years is enzyme mediated electrophilic catalysis. Proteins are made up of amino acids that contain acid, basic, and nucleophilic residues; however there are no naturally occurring electrophilic groups available in the functional repertoire of proteins. Enzymes are known to catalyze such reactions by employing Figure 1.