Issue 19, 2017

Evolution inspired engineering of antibiotic biosynthesis enzymes

Abstract

Streptomyces soil bacteria are competent chemists that are able to produce thousands of chemically complex natural products. Key to the development of this rich source of metabolites appears to be an evolutionary pressure that promotes chemical diversity; new biosynthetic pathways are continuously being formed in these bacteria, which may result in the appearance of a novel bioactive compound that provides significant competitive advantage to the producing organism. In recent years, our work has focused on understanding how minor changes in the biosynthetic enzymes has led to drastically altered catalytic properties. We have generated chimeric proteins from functionally distinct homologous enzymes involved in the tailoring steps of related anthracycline and angucycline pathways, with the aim of creating novel catalysts. The work provides an opportunity for further protein engineering efforts for production of improved bioactive natural products.

Graphical abstract: Evolution inspired engineering of antibiotic biosynthesis enzymes

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
24 jan. 2017
Accepted
21 apr. 2017
First published
25 apr. 2017

Org. Biomol. Chem., 2017,15, 4036-4041

Evolution inspired engineering of antibiotic biosynthesis enzymes

M. Metsä-Ketelä, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2017, 15, 4036 DOI: 10.1039/C7OB00189D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements