Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol.104, No.9, 3885-3896, 2020
An unusual metal-bound 4-fluorothreonine transaldolase from Streptomyces sp. MA37 catalyses promiscuous transaldol reactions
beta-Hydroxy-alpha-amino acids (beta H-AAs) are key components of many bioactive molecules as well as exist as specialised metabolites. Among these beta H-AAs, 4-fluorothreonine (4-FT) is the only naturally occurring fluorinated AA discovered thus far. Here we report overexpression and biochemical characterisation of 4-fluorothreonine transaldolase from Streptomyces sp. MA37 (FTaseMA), a homologue of FTase previously identified in the biosynthesis of 4-FT in S. cattleya. FTaseMA displays considerable substrate plasticity to generate 4-FT as well as other beta-hydroxy-alpha-amino acids with various functionalities at C4 position, giving the prospect of new chemo-enzymatic applications. The enzyme has a hybrid of two catalytic domains, serine hydroxymethyltransferase (S) and aldolase (A). Site-directed mutagenesis allowed the identification of the key residues of FTases, suggesting that the active site of A domain has a historical reminiscent feature in metal-dependent aldolases. Elemental analysis demonstrated that FTaseMA is indeed a Zn2+-dependent enzyme, the first example of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) enzyme family fused with a metal-binding domain carrying out a distinct catalytic role. Finally, FTaseMA showed divergent evolutionary origin with other PLP dependent enzymes.
Keywords:beta-Hydroxy-alpha-amino acids;4-fluorothreonine;4-fluorothreonine transaldolase;Transaldolation;Streptomyces sp;MA37