title: Conversion of L-proline to pyrrolyl-2-carboxyl-S-PCP during undecylprodigiosin and pyoluteorin biosynthesis.
abstract: Several medically and agriculturally important natural products contain pyrrole moieties. Precursor labeling studies of some of these natural products have shown that L-proline can serve as the biosynthetic precursor for these moieties, including those found in coumermycin A(1), pyoluteorin, and one of the pyrroles of undecylprodigiosin. This suggests a novel mechanism for pyrrole biosynthesis. The biosynthetic gene clusters for these three natural products each encode proteins homologous to adenylation (A) and peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) domains of nonribosomal peptide synthetases in addition to novel acyl-CoA dehydrogenases. Here we show that the three proteins from the undecylprodigiosin and pyoluteorin biosynthetic pathways are sufficient for the conversion of L-proline to pyrrolyl-2-carboxyl-S-PCP. This establishes a novel mechanism for pyrrole biosynthesis and extends the hypothesis that organisms use A/PCP pairs to partition an amino acid into secondary metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Burkart
authors.forename: Christopher T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005810:Multigene Family; D010636:Phenols; D011353:Prodigiosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D011392:Proline / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011551:Pseudomonas fluorescens / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011758:Pyrroles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D010636:Phenols; D011758:Pyrroles; C095503:pyoluteorin; C047347:undecylprodigiosin; D011392:Proline; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases; D011353:Prodigiosin