title: Amino acids activated by fengycin synthetase FenE.
abstract: Fengycin is a lipopeptidic antibiotic produced nonribosomally by Bacillus subtilis F29-3. Synthesis of this antibiotic requires five fengycin synthetases encoded by fenC, fenD, fenE, fenA, and fenB. In this study, we analyze the functions of the enzyme encoded by fenE, which contains two amino acid activation modules, FenE1 and FenE2. ATP-PP(i) exchange assay revealed that FenE1 activates l-Glu and FenE2 activates l-Ala, l-Val, and l-2-aminobutyric acid, indicating that FenE activates the fifth and the sixth amino acids in fengycin. Furthermore, l-Val is a better substrate than l-Ala for FenE2 in vitro, explaining why B. subtilis F29-3 normally produces twice as much of fengycin B than fengycin A, which contains d-Val and d-Ala at the sixth amino acid position, respectively. Results presented herein suggest that fengycin synthetase genes and amino acids in fengycin are colinear.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Yang-Ming University, Shih-Pai, Taipei, 112, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hung-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Guang-Huey
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ying-Chung
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Johannes Scheng-Ming
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Tschen
authors.forename: Shih-Tung
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D001412:Bacillus subtilis; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009876:Operon / Q000235:genetics; D010453:Peptide Synthases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000502:physiology; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D007527:Isoenzymes; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D010453:Peptide Synthases; C110972:fengycin synthetase