Koji Ichinose

Actinorhodin (ACT) from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) is an aromatic polyketide antibiotic with a benzoisochromanequinone (BIQ) skeleton. Although actVI-ORF3 and actVI-ORF4 are not essential for ACT biosynthesis, homologous genes to these are present in the biosynthetic gene clusters of BIQ lactones. In this study, ActVI-ORF3 was identified as a cofactor-independent enzyme with lactonization activity, using ACT as a substrate. ActVI-ORF3 recognized dihydrokalafungin and 8-hydroxykalafafungin, which share the same pyran-ring configuration as ACT, but not nanaomycin A, which has an opposite configuration. In contrast, ActVI-ORF4 functioned as an NAD(P)-dependent oxidoreductase, catalyzing the delactonization of BIQ lactones. Conversion experiments using isotopically labeled compounds revealed that both lactonization and delactonization reactions of these enzymes yielded products in which the carboxyl oxygen at the C1 position was retained. Subsequently, we reexamined the accumulation of ACT-related compounds in the actVI-ORF3 and actVI-ORF-4 disruptants. The results suggested that ACT intermediates are predominantly pooled in the bacteria as (S)-DNPA rather than in lactone-form. The contribution of ActVI-ORF4 to metabolic flux is not significant, and endogenous reductases can convert these intermediates to the dihydro form, which subsequently re-enters the ACT biosynthetic pathway.

The increasing prevalence of dermatophyte resistance to terbinafine, a key drug in the treatment of dermatophytosis, represents a significant obstacle to treatment. Trichophyton rubrum is the most commonly isolated fungus in dermatophytosis. In T. rubrum, we identified TERG_07844, a gene encoding a previously uncharacterized putative protein kinase, as an ortholog of budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae polyamine transport kinase 2 (Ptk2), and found that T. rubrum Ptk2 (TrPtk2) is involved in terbinafine tolerance. In both T. rubrum and S. cerevisiae, Ptk2 knockout strains were more sensitive to terbinafine compared with the wild types, suggesting that promotion of terbinafine tolerance is a conserved function of fungal Ptk2. Pma1 is activated through phosphorylation by Ptk2 in S. cerevisiae. Overexpression of T. rubrum Pma1 (TrPma1) in T. rubrum Ptk2 knockout strain (ΔTrPtk2) suppressed terbinafine sensitivity, suggesting that the induction of terbinafine tolerance by TrPtk2 is mediated by TrPma1. Furthermore, omeprazole, an inhibitor of plasma membrane proton pump Pma1, increased the terbinafine sensitivity of clinically isolated terbinafine-resistant strains. These findings suggest that, in dermatophytes, the TrPtk2-TrPma1 pathway plays a key role in promoting intrinsic terbinafine tolerance and may serve as a potential target for combinational antifungal therapy against terbinafine-resistant dermatophytes.

A plethora of dimeric natural products exist with diverse chemical structures and biological activities. A major strategy for dimerization is aryl coupling reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P450 or laccase. Actinorhodin (ACT) from Streptomyces coelicolor has a dimeric pyranonaphthoquinone structure connected by a C-C bond. Here, we identified a NmrA-family dimerizing enzyme, ActVA-ORF4, and a cofactor independent oxidase, ActVA-ORF3, both involved in the last step of ACT biosynthesis. ActVA-ORF4 is a unique  NAD(P)H-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the inter-molecular C-C bond formation using 8-hydroxydihydrokalafungin (DHK-OH) as the sole substrate. On the other hand, ActVA-ORF3 was found to be a quinone-forming enzyme that produces the coupling substrate, DHK-OH, and the final product, ACT. Consequently, the functional assignment of all essential enzymes in ACT biosynthesis was completed, which would be a landmark in our understanding of the entire biosynthetic pathway for one of the best-known model natural products, ACT.