title: Bifunctional triterpene/sesquarterpene cyclase: tetraprenyl-β-curcumene cyclase is also squalene cyclase in Bacillus megaterium.
abstract: This study demonstrates that a tetraprenyl-β-curcumene cyclase, which was originally identified as a sesquarterpene cyclase that converts a head-to-tail type of monocycle to a pentacycle, also cyclizes a tail-to-tail type of linear squalene into a bicyclic triterpenol, 8α-hydroxypolypoda-13,17,21-triene. The 8α-hydroxypolypoda-13,17,21-triene was found to be a natural triterpene from B. megaterium. It was also demonstrated that cyclizations of both tetraprenyl-β-curcumene and squalene occurred with a purified B. megaterium TC homologue in the same reaction mixture. These results suggest that the tetraprenyl-β-curcumene cyclase is bifunctional, cyclizing both tetraprenyl-β-curcumene and squalene in vivo. This is the first report describing a bifunctional terpene cyclase, which biosynthesizes two classes of cyclic terpenes with different numbers of carbons as natural products in the organism.
authors: Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, and Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University, Ikarashi 2-8050, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2181, Japan.
authors: Tsutomu
authors: T
authors: Sato
authors: Hiroko
authors: H
authors: Hoshino
authors: Satoru
authors: S
authors: Yoshida
authors: Mami
authors: M
authors: Nakajima
authors: Tsutomu
authors: T
authors: Hoshino
mesh_terms: D001410:Bacillus megaterium / Q000201:enzymology*; D019757:Carbon-Oxygen Lyases / Q000378:metabolism*; D003500:Cyclization; D015394:Molecular Structure; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013729:Terpenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013729:Terpenes; D019757:Carbon-Oxygen Lyases; C570282:tetraprenyl-beta-curcumene synthase, Bacillus megaterium