Redirecting the cyclization steps of fungal polyketide synthase

Regiospecific cyclizations of the nascent poly-beta-ketone backbones dictate the structures of polyketide natural products. The fungal iterative megasynthases use terminal thioesterase/claisen cyclase (TE/CLC) domains to direct the fate of the polyketide chains. In this work, we present two strategies toward redirecting the cyclization steps of fungal PKSs using the Gibberella fujikuroi PKS4. First, inactivation or removal of the TE/CLC domain resulted in the synthesis of the new polyketide SMA93 2. Complementation of the mutant PKS4 with a standalone TE/CLC domain restored the regioselective cyclization steps of PKS4 and led to the synthesis of SMA76 1, demonstrating that cyclization enzymes can interact with the megasynthase in trans. This led to the second approach in which various dissociated, bacterial tailoring enzymes were added to the megasynthase in trans. Addition of the act KR led to the synthesis of mutactin 3, while the addition of first ring and second ring cyclases yielded anthraquinone compounds DMAC 5 and SEK26 6. The cooperative activities of fungal and bacterial PKS components are especially important and enable synthesis of polyketides utilizing enzymes from two distinct families of PKSs.