Mechanistic Investigations into the Catalytic Mode of a Dehydratase
Complex Involved in the Biosynthesis of Lantibiotic Cacaoidin
Abstract
Dehydration of serine/threonine residues necessitates the activity of a
dehydratase enzyme (domain) during the biosynthesis of ribosomally
synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP). Recently,
it was reported that the dehydration process in thioviridamide relies on
a distinct dehydratase complex which showcases the activities of a
phosphotransferase TvaC for serine/threonine phosphorylation and a lyase
TvaD for subsequent phosphate elimination. Herein, we report that the
dehydration process of lantibiotic cacaoidin involves a similar
dehydratase complex, CaoK/CaoY. Remarkably, this dehydratase complex
exhibits flexible enzymatic activity and tolerates significant
variations in its substrate peptide sequence. By binding with the leader
peptide (LP) sequence of precursor peptide CaoA, the dehydration
reactions proceed directionality from the C-terminus of the core peptide
(CP) to its N-terminus, and C-terminally truncated variants of CP are
acceptable. We show that fusing CaoK to CaoY in a 1:1 molar ratio
enables the resulting enzyme CaoYK to exert enhanced dehydration
activity. CaoK binds with the LP to improve its own solubility and to
ensure the phosphate transfer activity, while CaoY functions
independently of the LP. This work advances our understanding of the
dehydration process of cacaoidin, and provides valuable enzymes and
methods for the studies of the rapidly emerging RiPPs.