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Microbes are essential to the global ecosystem, but undesirable microbial growth causes issues ranging from food spoilage and infectious diseases to harmful cyanobacterial blooms. The use of chemicals to control microbial growth has achieved significant success, while specific roles for a majority of essential genes in growth control remain unexplored. Here, we show the growth inhibition of cyanobacterial species by targeting an essential enzyme for the biosynthesis of branched-chain amino acids. Specifically, we report the biochemical, genetic, and structural characterization of dihydroxyacid dehydratase from the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (SnDHAD). Our studies suggest that SnDHAD is an oxygen-stable enzyme containing a [2Fe-2S] cluster. Furthermore, we demonstrate that SnDHAD is selectively inhibited in vitro and in vivo by the natural product aspterric acid, which also inhibits the growth of representative bloom-forming Microcystis and Anabaena strains but has minimal effects on microbial pathogens with [4Fe-4S] containing DHADs. This study suggests DHADs as a promising target for the precise growth control of microbes and highlights the exploration of other untargeted essential genes for microbial management.

Colibactin is a genotoxic hybrid nonribosomal peptide/polyketide secondary metabolite produced by various pathogenic and probiotic bacteria residing in the human gut. The presence of colibactin metabolites has been correlated to colorectal cancer formation in several studies. The specific function of many gene products in the colibactin gene cluster can be predicted. However, the role of ClbQ, a type II editing thioesterase, has not been established. The importance of ClbQ has been demonstrated by genetic deletions that abolish colibactin cytotoxic activity, and recent studies suggest an atypical role in releasing pathway intermediates from the assembly line. Here we report the 2.0 Å crystal structure and biochemical characterization of ClbQ. Our data reveal that ClbQ exhibits greater catalytic efficiency toward acyl-thioester substrates as compared to precolibactin intermediates and does not discriminate among carrier proteins. Cyclized pyridone-containing colibactins, which are off-pathway derivatives, are not viable substrates for ClbQ, while linear precursors are, supporting a role of ClbQ in facilitating the promiscuous off-loading of premature precolibactin metabolites and novel insights into colibactin biosynthesis.

The reduction of epoxyqueuosine (oQ) is the last step in the synthesis of the tRNA modification queuosine (Q). While the epoxyqueuosine reductase (EC 1.17.99.6) enzymatic activity was first described 30 years ago, the encoding gene queG was only identified in Escherichia coli in 2011. Interestingly, queG is absent from a large number of sequenced genomes that harbor Q synthesis or salvage genes, suggesting the existence of an alternative epoxyqueuosine reductase in these organisms. By analyzing phylogenetic distributions, physical gene clustering, and fusions, members of the Domain of Unknown Function 208 (DUF208) family were predicted to encode for an alternative epoxyqueuosine reductase. This prediction was validated with genetic methods. The Q modification is present in Lactobacillus salivarius, an organism missing queG but harboring the duf208 gene. Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 is one of the few organisms that harbor both QueG and DUF208, and deletion of both corresponding genes was required to observe the absence of Q and the accumulation of oQ in tRNA. Finally, the conversion oQ to Q was restored in an E. coli queG mutant by complementation with plasmids harboring duf208 genes from different bacteria. Members of the DUF208 family are not homologous to QueG enzymes, and thus, duf208 is a non-orthologous replacement of queG. We propose to name DUF208 encoding genes as queH. While QueH contains conserved cysteines that could be involved in the coordination of a Fe/S center in a similar fashion to what has been identified in QueG, no cobalamin was identified associated with recombinant QueH protein.

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases are large, complex multidomain enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of a wide range of peptidic natural products. Inherent to synthetase chemistry is the thioester templated mechanism that relies on protein/protein interactions and interdomain dynamics. Several questions related to structure and mechanism remain to be addressed, including the incorporation of accessory domains and intermodule interactions. The inclusion of nonproteinogenic d-amino acids into peptide frameworks is a common and important modification for bioactive nonribosomal peptides. Epimerization domains, embedded in nonribosomal peptide synthetases assembly lines, catalyze the l- to d-amino acid conversion. Here we report the structure of the epimerization domain/peptidyl carrier protein didomain construct from the first module of the cyclic peptide antibiotic gramicidin synthetase. Both holo (phosphopantethiene post-translationally modified) and apo structures were determined, each representing catalytically relevant conformations of the two domains. The structures provide insight into domain-domain recognition, substrate delivery during the assembly line process, in addition to the structural organization of homologous condensation domains, canonical players in all synthetase modules.