Enzymatic extender unit generation for in vitro polyketide synthase reactions: structural and functional showcasing...

In vitro experiments with modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are often limited by the availability of polyketide extender units. To determine the polyketide extender units that can be biocatalytically accessed via promiscuous malonyl-CoA ligases, structural and functional studies were conducted on Streptomyces coelicolor MatB. We demonstrate that this adenylate-forming enzyme is capable of producing most CoA-linked polyketide extender units as well as pantetheine- and N-acetylcysteamine-linked analogs useful for in vitro PKS studies. Two ternary product complex structures, one containing malonyl-CoA and AMP and the other containing (2R)-methylmalonyl-CoA and AMP, were solved to 1.45 Å and 1.43 Å resolution, respectively. MatB crystallized in the thioester-forming conformation, making extensive interactions with the bound extender unit products. This first structural characterization of an adenylate-forming enzyme that activates diacids reveals the molecular details for how malonate and its derivatives are accepted. The orientation of the α-methyl group of bound (2R)-methylmalonyl-CoA, indicates that it is necessary to epimerize α-substituted extender units formed by MatB before they can be accepted by PKS acyltransferase domains. We demonstrate the in vitro incorporation of methylmalonyl groups ligated by MatB to CoA, pantetheine, or N-acetylcysteamine into a triketide pyrone by the terminal module of the 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase. Additionally, a means for quantitatively monitoring certain in vitro PKS reactions using MatB is presented.