Functional characterisation of twelve terpene synthases from actinobacteria

• Anuj K. Chhalodia,
• Houchao Xu,
• Georges B. Tabekoueng,
• Binbin Gu,
• Kizerbo A. Taizoumbe,
• Lukas Lauterbach and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1386–1398, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.100

• bacterial terpene synthases have been identified [11], including enzymes for the non-canonical compounds geosmin (7) [12] and 2-methylisoborneol (8) [13]. Recent developments also revealed the presence of sesterterpene synthases in bacteria exemplified by the enzymes for sesterviridene (9) in Kitasatospora

Bacterial terpene biosynthesis: challenges and opportunities for pathway engineering

• Eric J. N. Helfrich,
• Geng-Min Lin,
• Christopher A. Voigt and
• Jon Clardy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2889–2906, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.283

• elegantly demonstrated in the studies on pentalenene synthase [68], geosmin synthase [69][70][71], and epi-isozizaene synthase [72]. Recently, all possible 13C-labeled FPP (9) [73] and GGPP (10) [74] precursors were synthesized and used to track the movement of carbon atoms and test mechanistic hypotheses

Phylogenomic analyses and distribution of terpene synthases among Streptomyces

• Lara Martín-Sánchez,
• Kumar Saurabh Singh,
• Mariana Avalos,
• Gilles P. van Wezel,
• Jeroen S. Dickschat and
• Paolina Garbeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1181–1193, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.115

• analysis of Streptomyces species, and compared the distribution of terpene synthase genes among them. Overall, our study revealed that ten major types of terpene synthases are present within the genus Streptomyces, namely those for geosmin, 2-methylisoborneol, epi-isozizaene, 7-epi-α-eudesmol, epi-cubenol

• , caryolan-1-ol, cyclooctat-9-en-7-ol, isoafricanol, pentalenene and α-amorphene. The Streptomyces species divide in three phylogenetic groups based on their whole genomes for which the distribution of the ten terpene synthases was analysed. Geosmin synthases were the most widely distributed and were found

• analysis of this genus is discussed. Keywords: biosynthesis; evolution; geosmin; Streptomyces; terpenes; Introduction Streptomyces are soil bacteria that belong to the order of actinomycetales and are a rich source of natural products with broad biotechnological interest. Species of this genus have a

Volatiles from three genome sequenced fungi from the genus Aspergillus

• Jeroen S. Dickschat,
• Ersin Celik and
• Nelson L. Brock

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 900–910, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.77

• terpenes, including traces of the widespread monoterpenes limonene (3) and linalool (4). The C12 compounds (8S*,9R*,10S*)-8,10-dimethyl-1-octalin (5) and (8S*,10R*)-8,10-dimethyl-1(9)-octalin (6) are intermediates of the biosynthesis of the earthy odorant geosmin that is itself a degraded sesquiterpene [29

• ][30], but geosmin could not be observed as a volatile of A. fischeri. The bacterial geosmin synthase is a class I terpene synthase (TS) with two domains [31] that occurs in many actinomycetes, cyanobacteria and myxobacteria, but fungal geosmin biosynthesis must require a different enzyme, because no

• homolog of the geosmin synthase is encoded in the genome of A. fischeri or of any other fungus. Furthermore, the diterpene pimara-8(14),15-diene (7) was one of the main compounds in the bouquet of A. fischeri. The biosynthesis of this compound is a two-step process that requires cyclisation of

Mechanistic investigations on six bacterial terpene cyclases

• Patrick Rabe,
• Thomas Schmitz and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1839–1850, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.173

• much later, with the first described compounds being geosmin [3] and 2-methylisoborneol [4], two irregular terpenoids that represent a degraded sesquiterpene [5] and a methylated monoterpene [6], respectively. These compounds have a musty or earthy aroma and are responsible for the smell of freshly

Marine-derived myxobacteria of the suborder Nannocystineae: An underexplored source of structurally intriguing and biologically active metabolites

• Antonio Dávila-Céspedes,
• Peter Hufendiek,
• Max Crüsemann,
• Till F. Schäberle and
• Gabriele M. König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 969–984, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.96

• gene clusters, among them three NRPS, two PKS, three NRPS/PKS and four ribosomal peptides (see Table 1). Apart from homologies to geosmin (100%), aurafuron (71%) and paneibactin (50%) biosynthetic genes, the gene clusters display a large degree of novelty. Recently, the biosynthetic gene cluster of

• synthesis of NRPS, PKS and hybrid NRPS-PKS products (see Table 1). Apart from the geosmin biosynthesis genes, no gene cluster or fragment thereof shares an identity higher than 33% to any known gene cluster in the MiBIG database [64]. It should be noted that since this is a draft genome sequence, the actual

Streptopyridines, volatile pyridine alkaloids produced by Streptomyces sp. FORM5

• Ulrike Groenhagen,
• Michael Maczka,
• Jeroen S. Dickschat and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1421–1432, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.146

• as presented in Scheme 2. Cyclohept-4-enone (49) has recently been reported from several actinomycetes [2]. Some terpenes could be identified as well. 2-Methylisoborneol (60) and geosmin (62) are commonly produced by Streptomyces and other actinomycetes [3][30]. In addition, the sesquiterpene

• structure space is different from that emerging for bacteria. The bacterial structure space includes acetoins and aromatic aldehydes, esters and ketones, aliphatic compounds, sulfur compounds, but also 4-cycloheptenone that we found in several other bacteria (unpublished results). The terpenes geosmin and