A revised biosynthetic pathway for the cofactor F 420 in prokaryotes

Ghader Bashiri*, James Antoney, Ehab N.M. Jirgis, Mihir V. Shah, Blair Ney, Janine Copp, Stephanie M. Stuteley, Sreevalsan Sreebhavan, Brian Palmer, Martin Middleditch, Nobuhiko Tokuriki, Chris Greening, Colin Scott, Edward N. Baker, Colin J. Jackson

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    49 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Cofactor F 420 plays critical roles in primary and secondary metabolism in a range of bacteria and archaea as a low-potential hydride transfer agent. It mediates a variety of important redox transformations involved in bacterial persistence, antibiotic biosynthesis, pro-drug activation and methanogenesis. However, the biosynthetic pathway for F 420 has not been fully elucidated: neither the enzyme that generates the putative intermediate 2-phospho-l-lactate, nor the function of the FMN-binding C-terminal domain of the γ-glutamyl ligase (FbiB) in bacteria are known. Here we present the structure of the guanylyltransferase FbiD and show that, along with its archaeal homolog CofC, it accepts phosphoenolpyruvate, rather than 2-phospho-l-lactate, as the substrate, leading to the formation of the previously uncharacterized intermediate dehydro-F 420 -0. The C-terminal domain of FbiB then utilizes FMNH 2 to reduce dehydro-F 420 -0, which produces mature F 420 species when combined with the γ-glutamyl ligase activity of the N-terminal domain. These new insights have allowed the heterologous production of F 420 from a recombinant F 420 biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number1558
    JournalNature Communications
    Volume10
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

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