Substrate specificity of the loading didomain of the erythromycin polyketide synthase

The priming of many modular polyketide synthases is catalyzed by a loading acyltransferase-acyl carrier protein (AT(L)-ACP(L)) didomain which initiates polyketide biosynthesis by transferring a primer unit to the ketosynthase domain of the first module. Because the AT(L) domain influences the choice of the starter unit incorporated into the polyketide backbone, its specificity is of considerable interest. The AT(L)-ACP(L) didomain of the 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase (DEBS) was functionally expressed in Escherichia coli. Coexpression of the Sfp phosphopantetheinyl transferase from Bacillus subtilis in E. coli leads to efficient posttranslational modification of the ACP(L) domain with a phosphopantetheine moiety. Competition experiments were performed with the holo-protein to determine the relative rates of incorporation of a variety of unnatural substrates in the presence of comparable concentrations of labeled acetyl-CoA. Our results showed that the loading didomain of DEBS can accept a surprisingly broad range of substrates, although it exhibits a preference for unbranched alkyl chain substrates over branched alkyl chain, polar, aromatic, and charged substrates. In particular, its tolerance toward acetyl- and butyryl-CoA is unexpectedly strong. The studies described here present an attractive prototype for the expression, analysis, and engineering of acyltransferase domains in modular polyketide synthases.