Heterologous Synthesis and Characterization of Thiocillin IV

Micrococcin P1 and P2 are thiopeptides with a wide range of biological functions including antibacterial and antimalarial activities. We previously demonstrated optimized enzymatic sequences for the exclusive and scalable biosynthesis of micrococcin P2. Thiocillin IV is predicted to be the congener of O-methylated micrococcin P2, but the exact structure has not been elucidated. In this study, we report the first scalable biosynthesis and full structural characterization of thiocillin IV, a 26-membered thiopeptide. This was achieved by generating a recombinant plasmid by inserting tclO, a gene encoding an O-methyltransferase, and genes responsible for micrococcin P2 production and incorporating them into a Bacillus strain. With the incorporation of precursor peptide genes and optimal culture conditions, production reached 2.4 mg/L of culture. The purified thiocillin IV structure was identified as O-methylated micrococcin P2 at the 8-Thr position, and its promising biological activity toward various Gram-positive pathogens was observed. This study provides tclO-mediated site-selective methylation and opens a biotechnological opportunity to produce selective thiopeptides.