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Pyonitrins A-D: Chimeric Natural Products Produced by Pseudomonas protegens.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial symbionts frequently provide chemical defenses for their hosts, and such systems can provide discovery pathways to new antifungals and structurally intriguing metabolites. This report describes a small family of naturally occurring small molecules with chimeric structures and a mixed biosynthesis that features an unexpected but key nonenzymatic step. An insect-associated Pseudomonas protegens strain's activity in an in vivo murine candidiasis assay led to the discovery of a family of highly hydrogen-deficient metabolites. Bioactivity- and mass-guided fractionation led to the pyonitrins, highly complex aromatic metabolites in which 10 of the 20 carbons are quaternary, and 7 of them are contiguous. The P. protegens genome revealed that the production of the pyonitrins is the result of a spontaneous reaction between biosynthetic intermediates of two well-studied Pseudomonas metabolites, pyochelin and pyrrolnitrin. The combined discovery of the pyonitrins and identification of the responsible biosynthetic gene clusters revealed an unexpected biosynthetic route that would have prevented the discovery of these metabolites by bioinformatic analysis alone.

SUBMITTER: Mevers E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6823628 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pyonitrins A-D: Chimeric Natural Products Produced by Pseudomonas protegens.

Mevers Emily E Saurí Josep J Helfrich Eric J N EJN Henke Matthew M Barns Kenneth J KJ Bugni Tim S TS Andes David D Currie Cameron R CR Clardy Jon J

Journal of the American Chemical Society 20191016 43

Bacterial symbionts frequently provide chemical defenses for their hosts, and such systems can provide discovery pathways to new antifungals and structurally intriguing metabolites. This report describes a small family of naturally occurring small molecules with chimeric structures and a mixed biosynthesis that features an unexpected but key nonenzymatic step. An insect-associated Pseudomonas protegens strain's activity in an in vivo murine candidiasis assay led to the discovery of ...[more]

PMID: 31600443

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Project description:UnlabelledInterspecies interactions have been described for numerous bacterial systems, leading to the identification of chemical compounds that impact bacterial physiology and differentiation for processes such as biofilm formation. Here, we identified soil microbes that inhibit biofilm formation and sporulation in the common soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis. We did so by creating a reporter strain that fluoresces when the transcription of a biofilm-specific gene is repressed. Using this reporter in a coculture screen, we identified Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas protegens as bacteria that secrete compounds that inhibit biofilm gene expression in B. subtilis. The active compound produced by P. protegens was identified as the antibiotic and antifungal molecule 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG). Colonies of B. subtilis grown adjacent to a DAPG-producing P. protegens strain had altered colony morphologies relative to B. subtilis colonies grown next to a DAPG-null P. protegens strain (phlD strain). Using a subinhibitory concentration of purified DAPG in a pellicle assay, we saw that biofilm-specific gene transcription was delayed relative to transcription in untreated samples. These transcriptional changes also corresponded to phenotypic alterations: both biofilm biomass and spore formation were reduced in B. subtilis liquid cultures treated with subinhibitory concentrations of DAPG. Our results add DAPG to the growing list of antibiotics that impact bacterial development and physiology at subinhibitory concentrations. These findings also demonstrate the utility of using coculture as a means to uncover chemically mediated interspecies interactions between bacteria.ImportanceBiofilms are communities of bacteria adhered to surfaces by an extracellular matrix; such biofilms can have important effects in both clinical and agricultural settings. To identify chemical compounds that inhibited biofilm formation, we used a fluorescent reporter to screen for bacteria that inhibited biofilm gene expression in Bacillus subtilis. We identified Pseudomonas protegens as one such bacterium and found that the biofilm-inhibiting compound it produces was the antibiotic 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG). We showed that even at subinhibitory concentrations, DAPG inhibits biofilm formation and sporulation in B. subtilis. These findings have potential implications for understanding the interactions between these two microbes in the natural world and support the idea that many compounds considered antibiotics can impact bacterial development at subinhibitory concentrations.

Project description:A new family of natural products has been described in which cysteine, serine and threonine from ribosomally-produced peptides are converted to thiazoles, oxazoles and methyloxazoles, respectively. These metabolites and their biosynthetic gene clusters are now referred to as thiazole/oxazole-modified microcins (TOMM). As exemplified by microcin B17 and streptolysin S, TOMM precursors contain an N-terminal leader sequence and C-terminal core peptide. The leader sequence contains binding sites for the posttranslational modifying enzymes which subsequently act upon the core peptide. TOMM peptides are small and highly variable, frequently missed by gene-finders and occasionally situated far from the thiazole/oxazole forming genes. Thus, locating a substrate for a particular TOMM pathway can be a challenging endeavor.Examination of candidate TOMM precursors has revealed a subclass with an uncharacteristically long leader sequence closely related to the enzyme nitrile hydratase. Members of this nitrile hydratase leader peptide (NHLP) family lack the metal-binding residues required for catalysis. Instead, NHLP sequences display the classic Gly-Gly cleavage motif and have C-terminal regions rich in heterocyclizable residues. The NHLP family exhibits a correlated species distribution and local clustering with an ABC transport system. This study also provides evidence that a separate family, annotated as Nif11 nitrogen-fixing proteins, can serve as natural product precursors (N11P), but not always of the TOMM variety. Indeed, a number of cyanobacterial genomes show extensive N11P paralogous expansion, such as Nostoc, Prochlorococcus and Cyanothece, which replace the TOMM cluster with lanthionine biosynthetic machinery.This study has united numerous TOMM gene clusters with their cognate substrates. These results suggest that two large protein families, the nitrile hydratases and Nif11, have been retailored for secondary metabolism. Precursors for TOMMs and lanthionine-containing peptides derived from larger proteins to which other functions are attributed, may be widespread. The functions of these natural products have yet to be elucidated, but it is probable that some will display valuable industrial or medical activities.

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Pyonitrins A-D: Chimeric Natural Products Produced by Pseudomonas protegens.

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Pyonitrins A-D: Chimeric Natural Products Produced by <i>Pseudomonas protegens</i>.

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