Campus Units
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
8-28-2009
Journal or Book Title
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume
284
Issue
35
First Page
23574
Last Page
23579
DOI
10.1074/jbc.M109.023788
Abstract
Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a widespread and devastating human pathogen, whose ability to infiltrate macrophage host cells from the human immune system is an active area of investigation. We have recently reported the discovery of a novel diterpene from M. tuberculosis, edaxadiene, whose ability to arrest phagosomal maturation in isolation presumably contributes to this critical process in M. tuberculosis infections. (Mann, F. M., Xu, M., Chen, X., Fulton, D. B., Russell, D. G., and Peters, R. J. (2009) J. Am. Chem. Soc., in press). Here, we present characterization of the class II diterpene cyclase that catalyzes the committed step in edaxadiene biosynthesis, i.e. the previously identified halimadienyl-diphosphate synthase (HPS; EC 5.5.1.16). Intriguingly, our kinetic analysis suggests a potential biochemical regulatory mechanism that triggers edaxadiene production upon phagosomal engulfment. Furthermore, we report characterization of potential HPS inhibitors: specifically, two related transition state analogs (15-aza-14,15-dihydrogeranylgeranyl diphosphate (7a) and 15-aza-14,15-dihydrogeranylgeranyl thiolodiphosphate (7b)) that exhibit very tight binding. Although arguably not suitable for clinical use, these nevertheless provide a basis for pharmaceutical design against this intriguing biosynthetic pathway. Finally, we provide evidence indicating that this pathway exists only in M. tuberculosis and is not functional in the closely related Mycobacterium bovis because of an inactivating frameshift in the HPS-encoding gene. Thus, we hypothesize that the inability to produce edaxadiene may be a contributing factor in the decreased infectivity and/or virulence of M. bovis relative to M. tuberculosis in humans.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Copyright Owner
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
Copyright Date
2009
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Mann, Francis M.; Prisic, Sladjana; Hu, Huayou; Xu, Meimei; Coates, Robert M.; and Peters, Reuben J., "Characterization and Inhibition of a Class II Diterpene Cyclase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Implications for tuberculosis" (2009). Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology Publications. 112.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/bbmb_ag_pubs/112
Included in
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Chemistry Commons, Diseases Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons
Comments
This research was originally published in Journal of Biological Chemistry. Mann FM, Prisic S, Hu H, Xu M, Coates RM, Peters RJ. Characterization and Inhibition of a Class II Diterpene Cyclase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Implicatons for tuberculosis. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2009 Aug 28;284:23574-23579. © the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.