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Characterization of cereulide synthetase, a toxin-producing macromolecular machine.

ABSTRACT: Cereulide synthetase is a two-protein nonribosomal peptide synthetase system that produces a potent emetic toxin in virulent strains of Bacillus cereus. The toxin cereulide is a depsipeptide, as it consists of alternating aminoacyl and hydroxyacyl residues. The hydroxyacyl residues are derived from keto acid substrates, which cereulide synthetase selects and stereospecifically reduces with imbedded ketoreductase domains before incorporating them into the growing depsipeptide chain. We present an in vitro biochemical characterization of cereulide synthetase. We investigate the kinetics and side chain specificity of α-keto acid selection, evaluate the requirement of an MbtH-like protein for adenylation domain activity, assay the effectiveness of vinylsulfonamide inhibitors on ester-adding modules, perform NADPH turnover experiments and evaluate in vitro depsipeptide biosynthesis. This work also provides biochemical insight into depsipeptide-synthesizing nonribosomal peptide synthetases responsible for other bioactive molecules such as valinomycin, antimycin and kutzneride.

SUBMITTER: Alonzo DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4455996 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundCereulide, a depsipeptide structurally related to valinomycin, is responsible for the emetic type of gastrointestinal disease caused by Bacillus cereus. Recently, it has been shown that this toxin is produced by a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), but its exact genetic organization and biochemical synthesis is unknown.ResultsThe complete sequence of the cereulide synthetase (ces) gene cluster, which encodes the enzymatic machinery required for the biosynthesis of cereulide, was dissected. The 24 kb ces gene cluster comprises 7 CDSs and includes, besides the typical NRPS genes like a phosphopantetheinyl transferase and two CDSs encoding enzyme modules for the activation and incorporation of monomers in the growing peptide chain, a CDS encoding a putative hydrolase in the upstream region and an ABC transporter in the downstream part. The enzyme modules responsible for incorporation of the hydroxyl acids showed an unusual structure while the modules responsible for the activation of the amino acids Ala and Val showed the typical domain organization of NRPS. The ces gene locus is flanked by genetic regions with high homology to virulence plasmids of B. cereus, Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus anthracis. PFGE and Southern hybridization showed that the ces genes are restricted to emetic B. cereus and indeed located on a 208 kb megaplasmid, which has high similarities to pXO1-like plasmids.ConclusionThe ces gene cluster that is located on a pXO1-like virulence plasmid represents, beside the insecticidal and the anthrax toxins, a third type of B. cereus group toxins encoded on megaplasmids. The ces genes are restricted to emetic toxin producers, but pXO1-like plasmids are also present in emetic-like strains. These data might indicate the presence of an ancient plasmid in B. cereus which has acquired different virulence genes over time. Due to the unusual structure of the hydroxyl acid incorporating enzyme modules of Ces, substantial biochemical efforts will be required to dissect the complete biochemical pathway of cereulide synthesis.

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Characterization of cereulide synthetase, a toxin-producing macromolecular machine.

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