OvoA in ovothiol biosynthesis is a mononuclear non-heme iron enzyme catalyzing the oxidative coupling between histidine and cysteine. It can also catalyze the oxidative coupling between hercynine and cysteine, yet with a different regio-selectivity. Due to the potential application of this reaction for industrial ergothioneine production, in this study, we systematically characterized OvoA by a combination of three different assays. Our studies revealed that OvoA can also catalyze the oxidation of cysteine to either cysteine sulfinic acid or cystine. Remarkably, these OvoA-catalyzed reactions can be systematically modulated by a slight modification of one of its substrates, histidine.

Ergothioneine is a histidine thiol derivative. Its mycobacterial biosynthetic pathway has five steps (EgtA-E catalysis) with two novel reactions: a mononuclear nonheme iron enzyme (EgtB) catalyzed oxidative C–S bond formation and a PLP-mediated C–S lyase (EgtE) reaction. Our bioinformatic and biochemical analyses indicate that the fungus Neurospora crassa has a more concise ergothioneine biosynthetic pathway because its nonheme iron enzyme, Egt1, makes use of cysteine instead of γ-Glu-Cys as the substrate. Such a change of substrate preference eliminates the competition between ergothioneine and glutathione biosyntheses. In addition, we have identified the N. crassa C–S lyase (NCU11365) and reconstituted its activity in vitro, which makes the future ergothioneine production through metabolic engineering feasible.

Ergothioneine (5) and ovothiol (8) are two novel thiol-containing natural products. Their C–S bonds are formed by oxidative coupling reactions catalyzed by EgtB and OvoA enzymes, respectively. In this work, it was discovered that in addition to catalyzing the oxidative coupling between histidine and cysteine (1 → 6 conversion), OvoA can also catalyze a direct oxidative coupling between hercynine (2) and cysteine (2 → 4 conversion), which can shorten the ergothioneine biosynthetic pathway by two steps.

Herein, the structure resulting from in situ turnover in a chemically challenging quaternary ammonium oxidative demethylation reaction was captured via crystallographic analysis and analyzed via single-crystal spectroscopy. Crystal structures were determined for the Rieske-type monooxygenase, stachydrine demethylase, in the unliganded state (at 1.6 Å resolution) and in the product complex (at 2.2 Å resolution). The ligand complex was obtained from enzyme aerobically cocrystallized with the substrate stachydrine (N,N-dimethylproline). The ligand electron density in the complex was interpreted as proline, generated within the active site at 100 K by the absorption of X-ray photon energy and two consecutive demethylation cycles. The oxidation state of the Rieske iron–sulfur cluster was characterized by UV–visible spectroscopy throughout X-ray data collection in conjunction with resonance Raman spectra collected before and after diffraction data. Shifts in the absorption band wavelength and intensity as a function of absorbed X-ray dose demonstrated that the Rieske center was reduced by solvated electrons generated by X-ray photons; the kinetics of the reduction process differed dramatically for the liganded complex compared to unliganded demethylase, which may correspond to the observed turnover in the crystal.

IspH, a [4Fe-4S]-cluster-containing enzyme, catalyzes the reductive dehydroxylation of 4-hydroxy-3-methyl-butenyl diphosphate (HMBPP) to isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP) in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway. Studies of IspH using fluoro-substituted substrate analogues to dissect the contributions of several factors to IspH catalysis, including the coordination of the HMBPP C4–OH group to the iron–sulfur cluster, the H-bonding network in the active site, and the electronic properties of the substrates, are reported.

In this communication, we reported another unique IspG-catalyzed transformation, the production of its substrate, MEcPP, from (2R,3R)-4-hydroxy-3-methyl-2,3-epoxybutanyl diphosphate (Epoxy-HMBPP) when reductants are excluded from the reaction mixture.

From two C5 isoprene building blocks, isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and its isomer dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP), the more than 30 000 members of the isoprenoid family are constructed in nature using two biosynthetic pathways, the mevalonate (MVA) pathway and the deoxyxylulose phosphate (DXP) pathway. IspH of the DXP pathway is a protein containing an iron−sulfur cluster and catalyzes a reductive dehydration reaction of the DXP pathway. In the literature, a wide range of Escherichia coli IspH activities have been reported (2.0 nmol min−1 mg−1 to 3.4 μmol min−1 mg−1). For such a broad range of activities, reaction assays were carried out under many different conditions, preventing direct comparison of the activities and determination of the key factor responsible for such a dramatic difference in IspH activities. In this work, we systematically examined the role of redox mediators in IspH catalysis using E. coli IspH as the enzyme and dithionite as the ultimate electron source. Our studies not only suggest the importance of the iron−sulfur cluster but also improve the E. coli IspH activity by nearly 97-fold relative to that from the E. coli NADPH-flavodoxin reductase−flavodoxin system.

IspG is an intriguing enzyme in bacteria, parasite, and plant isoprenoid biosynthesis, and its catalytic mechanism remains elusive. We report here the synthesis of (2R,3R)-4-hydroxy-3-methyl-2,3-epoxybutanyl diphosphate (Epoxy-HMBPP), a proposed intermediate in one of the frequently cited mechanistic models. We have also demonstrated that this epoxide analogue is a catalytically competent IspG substrate. This study represents the first mechanistic study of this important enzyme.

IspG is a [4Fe-4S] cluster-containing protein, and the [4Fe-4S]+ species is proposed to be the catalytically relevant species. However, attempts reported in the literature failed to detect the [4Fe-4S]+ species. In this study, using a potent reduction system, we have successfully detected the [4Fe-4S]+ species with X-band EPR spectroscopy. In addition, we have improved the Escherichia coli IspG activity to 550 nmol min−1 mg−1, which is ∼20-fold greater than that of the NADPH−Fpr−FldA system in the literature.

This communication explores prenyltransferase substrate binding pocket flexibility to tag and enrich isoprenoids using affinity-based purification for metabolomic studies.

In this communication, we reported another unique IspG-catalyzed transformation, the production of its substrate, MEcPP, from (2R,3R)-4-hydroxy-3-methyl-2,3-epoxybutanyl diphosphate (Epoxy-HMBPP) when reductants are excluded from the reaction mixture.