Total Biosynthesis of the Pyrrolo[4,2]benzodiazepine Scaffold Tomaymycin on an In Vitro Reconstituted NRPS System.
von Tesmar, A., Hoffmann, M., Pippel, J., Fayad, A.A., Dausend-Werner, S., Bauer, A., Blankenfeldt, W., Muller, R.(2017) Cell Chem Biol 24: 1216-1227.e8
- PubMed: 28890318 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.08.001
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
5N5D - PubMed Abstract: 
In vitro reconstitution and biochemical analysis of natural product biosynthetic pathways remains a challenging endeavor, especially if megaenzymes of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) type are involved. In theory, all biosynthetic steps may be deciphered using mass spectrometry (MS)-based analyses of both the carrier protein-coupled intermediates and the free intermediates. We here report the "total biosynthesis" of the pyrrolo[4,2]benzodiazepine scaffold tomaymycin using an in vitro reconstituted NRPS system. Proteoforms were analyzed by liquid chromatography (LC)-MS to decipher every step of the biosynthesis on its respective megasynthetase with up to 170 kDa in size. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a comprehensive analysis of virtually all chemical steps involved in the biosynthesis of nonribosomally synthesized natural products. The study includes experiments to determine substrate specificities of the corresponding A-domains in competition assays by analyzing the adenylation step as well as the transfer to the respective carrier protein domain.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Microbial Natural Products (MINS), Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) - Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and Institute for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany; German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Hannover-Braunschweig, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany.