Kinetic Analysis of Lanthipeptide Cyclization by Substrate-Tolerant ProcM

Lanthipeptides are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides characterized by the presence of thioether crosslinks. Class II lanthipeptide synthetases are bifunctional enzymes responsible for the multistep chemical modification of these natural products. ProcM is a class II lanthipeptide synthetase known for its remarkable substrate tolerance and ability to install diverse (methyl)lanthionine rings with high accuracy. Previous studies suggested that the final ring pattern of the lanthipeptide product may be determined by the substrate sequence rather than by ProcM, and that ProcM operates by a kinetically controlled mechanism, wherein the ring pattern is dictated by the relative rates of the individual cyclization reactions. This study utilizes kinetic assays to determine if rates of isolated modifications can predict the final ring pattern present in prochlorosins. Changes in the core substrate sequence resulted in changes to the reaction rates of ring formation as well as a change in the order of modifications. Additionally, individual chemical reaction rates were significantly impacted by the presence of other modifications on the peptide. These findings indicate that the rates of isolated modifications are capable of predicting the final ring pattern but are not necessarily a good predictor of the order of modification in WT ProcA3.3 and its variants.