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The carbon skeletons of over 55,000 naturally occurring isoprenoid compounds are constructed from four fundamental coupling reactions: chain elongation, cyclopropanation, branching, and cyclobutanation. Enzymes that catalyze chain elongation and cyclopropanation are well studied, whereas those that catalyze branching and cyclobutanation are unknown. We have catalyzed the four reactions with chimeric proteins generated by replacing segments of a chain-elongation enzyme with corresponding sequences from a cyclopropanation enzyme. Stereochemical and mechanistic considerations suggest that the four coupling enzymes could have evolved from a common ancestor through relatively small changes in the catalytic site.

Terpenoid synthases create diverse carbon skeletons by catalyzing complex carbocation rearrangements, making them particularly challenging for enzyme function prediction. To begin to address this challenge, we have developed a computational approach for the systematic enumeration of terpenoid carbocations. Application of this approach allows us to systematically define a nearly complete chemical space for the potential carbon skeletons of products from monoterpenoid synthases. Specifically, 18758 carbocations were generated, which we cluster into 74 cyclic skeletons. Five of the 74 skeletons are found in known natural products; some of the others are plausible for new functions, either in nature or engineered. This work systematizes the description of function for this class of enzymes, and provides a basis for predicting functions of uncharacterized enzymes. To our knowledge, this is the first computational study to explore the complete product chemical space of this important class of enzymes.

Significance This paper describes a novel strategy for predicting the function of terpene synthases. Functional assignment of terpene synthases is a daunting task because product selectivity is not high in many terpene synthases, and mutations in and near the active sites of selective enzyme can result in synthesis of different products. Using a homology model of an unknown terpene synthase, we developed an algorithm that predicted the enzyme synthesizes a linear triquinane. We confirmed this prediction; specifically, the enzyme converts farnesyl diphosphate to a linear triquinine sesquiterpene: (5 S ,7 S ,10 R ,11 S )-cucumene. The findings highlight the potential for using computational approaches to assist in the discovery and characterization of unknown terpene synthases. Terpenoids are a large structurally diverse group of natural products with an array of functions in their hosts. The large amount of genomic information from recent sequencing efforts provides opportunities and challenges for the functional assignment of terpene synthases that construct the carbon skeletons of these compounds. Inferring function from the sequence and/or structure of these enzymes is not trivial because of the large number of possible reaction channels and products. We tackle this problem by developing an algorithm to enumerate possible carbocations derived from the farnesyl cation, the first reactive intermediate of the substrate, and evaluating their steric and electrostatic compatibility with the active site. The homology model of a putative pentalenene synthase (Uniprot: B5GLM7) from Streptomyces clavuligerus was used in an automated computational workflow for product prediction. Surprisingly, the workflow predicted a linear triquinane scaffold as the top product skeleton for B5GLM7. Biochemical characterization of B5GLM7 reveals the major product as (5 S ,7 S ,10 R ,11 S )-cucumene, a sesquiterpene with a linear triquinane scaffold. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of a terpene synthase involved in the synthesis of a linear triquinane. The success of our prediction for B5GLM7 suggests that this approach can be used to facilitate the functional assignment of novel terpene synthases.

The number of available protein sequences has increased exponentially with the advent of high-throughput genomic sequencing, creating a significant challenge for functional annotation. Here, we describe a large-scale study on assigning function to unknown members of the trans -polyprenyl transferase (E-PTS) subgroup in the isoprenoid synthase superfamily, which provides substrates for the biosynthesis of the more than 55,000 isoprenoid metabolites. Although the mechanism for determining the product chain length for these enzymes is known, there is no simple relationship between function and primary sequence, so that assigning function is challenging. We addressed this challenge through large-scale bioinformatics analysis of >5,000 putative polyprenyl transferases; experimental characterization of the chain-length specificity of 79 diverse members of this group; determination of 27 structures of 19 of these enzymes, including seven cocrystallized with substrate analogs or products; and the development and successful application of a computational approach to predict function that leverages available structural data through homology modeling and docking of possible products into the active site. The crystallographic structures and computational structural models of the enzyme–ligand complexes elucidate the structural basis of specificity. As a result of this study, the percentage of E -PTS sequences similar to functionally annotated ones (BLAST e-value ≤ 1e ⁻⁷⁰) increased from 40.6 to 68.8%, and the percentage of sequences similar to available crystal structures increased from 28.9 to 47.4%. The high accuracy of our blind prediction of newly characterized enzymes indicates the potential to predict function to the complete polyprenyl transferase subgroup of the isoprenoid synthase superfamily computationally.

Terpenoid synthases construct the carbon skeletons of tens of thousands of natural products. To predict functions and specificity of triterpenoid synthases, a mechanism-based, multi-intermediate docking approach is proposed. In addition to enzyme function prediction, other potential applications of the current approach, such as enzyme mechanistic studies and enzyme redesign by mutagenesis, are discussed.

Evidence for an unusual catalysis of protonation/deprotonation by a reduced flavin mononucleotide cofactor is presented for type-2 isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase (IDI-2), which catalyzes isomerization of the two fundamental building blocks of isoprenoid biosynthesis, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. The covalent adducts formed between irreversible mechanism-based inhibitors, 3-methylene-4-penten-1-yl diphosphate or 3-oxiranyl-3-buten-1-yl diphosphate, and the flavin cofactor were investigated by X-ray crystallography and UV-visible spectroscopy. Both the crystal structures of IDI-2 binding the flavin-inhibitor adduct and the UV-visible spectra of the adducts indicate that the covalent bond is formed at C4a of flavin rather than at N5, which had been proposed previously. In addition, the high-resolution crystal structures of IDI-2-substrate complexes and the kinetic studies of new mutants confirmed that only the flavin cofactor can catalyze protonation of the substrates and suggest that N5 of flavin is most likely to be involved in proton transfer. These data provide support for a mechanism where the reduced flavin cofactor acts as a general acid/base catalyst and helps stabilize the carbocationic intermediate formed by protonation.

The chain elongation reaction catalyzed by polyprenyl diphosphate synthases is the fundamental building reaction in the isoprenoid pathway. During chain elongation, the hydrocarbon moiety in an allylic isoprenoid diphosphate is added to the carbon–carbon double bond of isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP). The chain elongation enzymes can be divided into two genetically different families depending on whether the stereochemistry of the newly formed double bond during each cycle of chain elongation is E or Z. Farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) synthase, a member of the E-double bond family, is the best studied of the chain elongation enzymes and serves as a paradigm for understanding the reactions catalyzed by E-polyprenyl diphosphate synthases. The mechanism for chain elongation is a stereoselective electrophilic alkylation of the carbon–carbon double bond in IPP by the allylic substrate. X-ray structures of avian and E. coli FPP synthases have provided important insights about the mechanism for chain elongation and a structural basis for understanding the stereochemistry of the reaction.

An analysis of the x-ray structure of homodimeric avian farnesyl diphosphate synthase (geranyltransferase, EC 2.5.1.10) coupled with information about conserved amino acids obtained from a sequence alignment of 35 isoprenyl diphosphate synthases that synthesize farnesyl (C15), geranylgeranyl (C20), and higher chain length isoprenoid diphosphates suggested that the side chains of residues corresponding to F112 and F113 in the avian enzyme were important for determining the ultimate length of the hydrocarbon chains. This hypothesis was supported by site-directed mutagenesis to transform wild-type avian farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FPS) into synthases capable of producing geranylgeranyl diphosphate (F112A), geranylfarnesyl (C25) diphosphate (F113S), and longer chain prenyl diphosphates (F112A/F113S). An x-ray analysis of the structure of the F112A/F113S mutant in the apo state and with allylic substrates bound produced the strongest evidence that these mutations caused the observed change in product specificity by directly altering the size of the binding pocket for the growing isoprenoid chain in the active site of the enzyme. The proposed binding pocket in the apo mutant structure was increased in depth by 5.8 angstrom as compared with that for the wild-type enzyme. Allylic diphosphates were observed in the holo structures, bound through magnesium ions to the aspartates of the first of two conserved aspartate-rich sequences (D117-D121), with the hydrocarbon tails of all the ligands growing down the hydrophobic pocket toward the mutation site. A model was constructed to show how the growth of a long chain prenyl product may proceed by creation of a hydrophobic passageway from the FPS active site to the outside surface of the enzyme.

Prenyltransferases that catalyze the fundamental chain elongation reaction in the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway contain several highly conserved amino acids, including two aspartate-rich regions thought to be involved in substrate binding and catalysis. We report a study of site-directed mutants for yeast farnesyl-diphosphate synthase (FPPSase; geranyl-diphosphate:isopentenyl-diphosphate, EC 2.5.1.10), a prenyltransferase that catalyzes the sequential 1'-4 coupling of isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) with dimethylallyl diphosphate and geranyl diphosphate. A recombinant form of FPPSase extended by a C-terminal -Glu-Glu-Phe alpha-tubulin epitope (EEF in single-letter amino acid code) was engineered to facilitate rapid purification of the enzyme by immunoaffinity chromatography and to remove traces of contaminating activity from wild-type FPPSase in the Escherichia coli host. Ten site-directed mutants were constructed in FPPSase::EEF. The six aspartates in domain I (at positions 100, 101, and 104) and domain H (at positions 240, 241, and 244) were changed to alanine (mutants designated D100A, D101A, D104A, D240A, D241A, and D244A); three arginine residues were changed, Arg-109 and Arg-110 to glutamine and Arg-350 to alanine (mutants designated R109Q, R110Q, and R350A); and Lys-254 was converted to alanine (mutant designated K254A). Mutations of the aspartatic residues and nearby arginine residues in domain I and Asp-240 and Asp-241 in domain H drastically lowered the catalytic activity of FPPSase::EEF. The D244A and K254A mutants were substantially less active, while k(cat) and the Michaelis constants for the R350A mutant were similar to those of FPPSase::EEF. Addition of an -EEF epitope to the C terminus of wild-type FPPSase resulted in a 14-fold increase of KmIPP and a 12-fold decrease of kcat, suggesting that the conserved hydrophilic C terminus of the enzyme may have a role in substrate binding and catalysis

Sacchettini and Poulter comment on how diverse families of isoprenoid structures are often formed from the same substrate in an enzyme-specific manner. Similar folds for the chain elongation and cyclase enzymes have been consistent with the hypothesis that enzymes that catalyze successive steps in a metabolic pathway evolve one from another.