DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Biosynthesis of natural and halogenated plant monoterpene indole alkaloids in yeast

Journal Article · · Nature Chemical Biology
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [4] more »;  [4]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3];  [3];  [5]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [6]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1] « less
  1. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark)
  2. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena (Germany)
  3. University of Tours (France)
  4. Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark)
  5. Axyntis, Pithiviers (France)
  6. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint BioEnergy Institute and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Shenzhen Institutes of Advance Technologies (China)

Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) represent a large class of plant natural products with marketed pharmaceutical activities against a wide range of indications, including cancer, malaria and hypertension. Halogenated MIAs have shown improved pharmaceutical properties; however, synthesis of new-to-nature halogenated MIAs remains a challenge. Here we demonstrate a platform for de novo biosynthesis of two MIAs, serpentine and alstonine, in baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and deploy it to systematically explore the biocatalytic potential of refactored MIA pathways for the production of halogenated MIAs. From this, we demonstrate conversion of individual haloindole derivatives to a total of 19 different new-to-nature haloserpentine and haloalstonine analogs. Furthermore, by process optimization and heterologous expression of a modified halogenase in the microbial MIA platform, we document de novo halogenation and biosynthesis of chloroalstonine. Together, this study highlights a microbial platform for enzymatic exploration and production of complex natural and new-to-nature MIAs with therapeutic potential.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0018368
OSTI ID:
2367187
Journal Information:
Nature Chemical Biology, Vol. 19; ISSN 1552-4450
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (65)

Discovery of Highly Potent Serotonin 5-HT2 Receptor Agonists Inspired by Heteroyohimbine Natural Products journal March 2022
A microbial supply chain for production of the anti-cancer drug vinblastine journal August 2022
Multiplex metabolic pathway engineering using CRISPR/Cas9 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal March 2015
Treatment of opioid use disorder with ibogaine: detoxification and drug use outcomes journal May 2017
Completion of the seven-step pathway from tabersonine to the anticancer drug precursor vindoline and its assembly in yeast journal April 2015
Construction of ajmalicine and sanguinarine de novo biosynthetic pathways using stable integration sites in yeast journal January 2022
Advancing uracil-excision based cloning towards an ideal technique for cloning PCR fragments journal September 2006
Improved protein glycosylation enabled heterologous biosynthesis of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids and their unnatural derivatives in yeast journal June 2023
Use of a cAMP BRET Sensor to Characterize a Novel Regulation of cAMP by the Sphingosine 1-Phosphate/G13 Pathway journal April 2007
Cd-hit: a fast program for clustering and comparing large sets of protein or nucleotide sequences journal May 2006
Leveraging synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to overcome obstacles in plant pathway elucidation journal February 2023
De novo transcript sequence reconstruction from RNA-seq using the Trinity platform for reference generation and analysis journal July 2013
Redesign of a Central Enzyme in Alkaloid Biosynthesis journal November 2006
Structural investigation of heteroyohimbine alkaloid synthesis reveals active site elements that control stereoselectivity journal July 2016
A Highly Characterized Synthetic Landing Pad System for Precise Multicopy Gene Integration in Yeast journal October 2018
Tandem Action of the O 2 - and FADH 2 -Dependent Halogenases KtzQ and KtzR Produce 6,7-Dichlorotryptophan for Kutzneride Assembly journal October 2008
A dynamic regression analysis tool for quantitative assessment of bacterial growth written in Python journal January 2017
Complete biosynthesis of cannabinoids and their unnatural analogues in yeast journal February 2019
Trastuzumab Deruxtecan in Previously Treated HER2-Positive Breast Cancer journal February 2020
Improved virus-induced gene silencing allows discovery of a serpentine synthase gene in Catharanthus roseus journal June 2021
Facile in Vitro Biocatalytic Production of Diverse Tryptamines journal June 2019
Improving the Stability and Catalyst Lifetime of the Halogenase RebH By Directed Evolution journal May 2014
Total Synthesis of Vinblastine, Vincristine, Related Natural Products, and Key Structural Analogues journal March 2009
10′-Fluorovinblastine and 10′-Fluorovincristine: Synthesis of a Key Series of Modified Vinca Alkaloids journal October 2011
Enhanced bioproduction of anticancer precursor vindoline by yeast cell factories journal July 2021
Structural characterization of monoterpene indole alkaloids in ethanolic extracts of Rauwolfia species by liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry journal December 2016
The Polar Hydrophobicity of Fluorinated Compounds journal April 2004
SeaView Version 4: A Multiplatform Graphical User Interface for Sequence Alignment and Phylogenetic Tree Building journal October 2009
EasyClone-MarkerFree: A vector toolkit for marker-less integration of genes into Saccharomyces cerevisiae via CRISPR-Cas9 journal June 2016
Robust in vitro activity of RebF and RebH, a two-component reductase/halogenase, generating 7-chlorotryptophan during rebeccamycin biosynthesis journal March 2005
Large-scale high-efficiency yeast transformation using the LiAc/SS carrier DNA/PEG method journal January 2007
Genome‐guided investigation of plant natural product biosynthesis journal April 2015
Misfolded proteins impose a dosage-dependent fitness cost and trigger a cytosolic unfolded protein response in yeast journal December 2010
Sarpagan bridge enzyme has substrate-controlled cyclization and aromatization modes journal June 2018
Integrating carbon–halogen bond formation into medicinal plant metabolism journal November 2010
A Reporter System for Cytosolic Protein Aggregates in Yeast journal February 2021
Modular Combination of Enzymatic Halogenation of Tryptophan with Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Coupling Reactions journal May 2016
DCyFIR: a high-throughput CRISPR platform for multiplexed G protein-coupled receptor profiling and ligand discovery journal May 2020
Directed Biosynthesis of Alkaloid Analogs in the Medicinal Plant Catharanthus roseus journal October 2006
Molecular origins of fluorocarbon hydrophobicity journal July 2010
Substrate specificity of strictosidine synthase journal May 2006
Production of amorphadiene in yeast, and its conversion to dihydroartemisinic acid, precursor to the antimalarial agent artemisinin journal January 2012
Strictosidine Synthase:  Mechanism of a Pictet−Spengler Catalyzing Enzyme journal December 2007
Heterologous expression of a Rauvolfia cDNA encoding strictosidine glucosidase, a biosynthetic key to over 2000 monoterpenoid indole alkaloids journal April 2002
How enzyme promiscuity and horizontal gene transfer contribute to metabolic innovation journal January 2020
Drug Shortages: The View Across an Ocean journal February 2020
BLAST+: architecture and applications journal January 2009
Halogenating Enzymes for Active Agent Synthesis: First Steps Are Done and Many Have to Follow journal November 2019
Tailored biosynthesis of gibberellin plant hormones in yeast journal July 2021
The Alkaloid Alstonine: A Review of Its Pharmacological Properties journal January 2006
Unlocking the Diversity of Alkaloids in Catharanthus roseus: Nuclear Localization Suggests Metabolic Channeling in Secondary Metabolism journal March 2015
Anxiolytic properties of the antipsychotic alkaloid alstonine journal March 2004
Chemistry and biology of monoterpene indole alkaloid biosynthesis journal January 2006
StringTie enables improved reconstruction of a transcriptome from RNA-seq reads journal February 2015
A GPCR-based yeast biosensor for biomedical, biotechnological, and point-of-use cannabinoid determination journal June 2022
Engineering a Model Cell for Rational Tuning of GPCR Signaling journal April 2019
Complete biosynthesis of opioids in yeast journal August 2015
Fermentation Titer Optimization and Impact on Energy and Water Consumption during Downstream Processing journal October 2018
Engineered Production of Strictosidine and Analogues in Yeast journal March 2022
Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the de novo production of psilocybin and related tryptamine derivatives journal July 2020
De novo biosynthesis of bioactive isoflavonoids by engineered yeast cell factories journal October 2021
Regioselective Arene Halogenation using the FAD-Dependent Halogenase RebH journal April 2013
Enantioselective Syntheses of Heteroyohimbine Natural Products: A Unified Approach through Cooperative Catalysis journal April 2015
fastp: an ultra-fast all-in-one FASTQ preprocessor journal September 2018
Serotonin G Protein-Coupled Receptor-Based Biosensing Modalities in Yeast journal April 2022