6zs0

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Prenylation is a process widely prevalent in primary and secondary metabolism, contributing to functionality and chemical diversity in natural systems. Due to their high regio- and chemoselectivities, prenyltransferases are also valuable tools for creation of new compounds by chemoenzymatic synthesis and synthetic biology. Over the last ten years, biochemical and structural investigations shed light on the mechanism and key residues that control the catalytic process, but to date crucial information on how certain prenyltransferases control regioselectivity and chemoselectivity was still lacking. Here, we advance a general understanding of the enzyme family by contributing the first structure of a tryptophan C5-prenyltransferase 5-DMATS. Additinallyi, the structure of a bacterial tryptophan C6-prenyltransferase 6-DMATS was solved. Analysis and comparison of both substrate-bound complexes led to the identification of key residues for catalysis. Next, site-directed mutagenesis was successfully implemented to not only modify the prenyl donor specificity but also to redirect the prenylation, thereby switching the regioselectivity of 6-DMATS to that of 5-DMATS. The general strategy of structure-guided protein engineering should be applicable to other related prenyltransferases, thus enabling the production of novel prenylated compounds.

Reprogramming substrate and catalytic promiscuity of tryptophan prenyltransferases.,Ostertag E, Zheng L, Broger K, Stehle T, Li SM, Zocher G J Mol Biol. 2020 Nov 26. pii: S0022-2836(20)30644-6. doi:, 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.11.025. PMID:33249189^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.