Dietary Iron Intake Has Long-Term Effects on the Fecal Metabolome and Microbiome.

Iron is essential for life, but its imbalances can lead to severe health implications. Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient disorder worldwide, and iron disregulation in early life has been found to cause long-lasting behavioral, cognitive, and neural effects. However, little is known about the effects of dietary iron on gut microbiome function and metabolism. In this study, we sought to investigate the impact of dietary iron on the fecal metabolome and microbiome by using mice fed with three diets with different iron content: an iron deficient, an iron sufficient (standard), and an iron overload diet for seven weeks. Additionally, we sought to understand whether any observed changes would persist past the 7-week period of diet intervention. To assess this, all feeding groups were switched to a standard diet, and this feeding continued for an additional 7 weeks. Analysis of the fecal metabolome revealed that iron overload and deficiency significantly alter levels of peptides, nucleic acids, and lipids, including di- and tri-peptides containing branched-chain amino acids, inosine and guanosine, and several microbial conjugated bile acids. The observed changes in the fecal metabolome persist long after the switch back to a standard diet, with the cecal gut microbiota composition and function of each group distinct after the 7-week standard diet wash-out. Our results highlight the enduring metabolic consequences of nutritional imbalances, mediated by both host and gut microbiome, which persist after returning to original standard diets.

Structural, Biochemical, and Bioinformatic Basis for Identifying Radical SAM Cyclopropyl Synthases.

The importance of radical S-adenosyl-l-methionine (RS) enzymes in the maturation of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) continues to expand, specifically for the RS-SPASM subfamily. We recently discovered an RS-SPASM enzyme that installs a carbon-carbon bond between the geminal methyls of valine residues, resulting in the formation of cyclopropylglycine (CPG). Here, we sought to define the family of cyclopropyl (CP) synthases because of the importance of cyclopropane scaffolds in pharmaceutical development. Using RadicalSAM.org, we bioinformatically expanded the family of CP synthases and assigned unique peptide sequences to each subclade. We identified a unique RiPP biosynthetic pathway that encodes a precursor peptide, TigB, with a repeating TIGSVS motif. Using LCMS and NMR techniques, we show that the RS enzyme associated with the pathway, TigE, catalyzes the formation of a methyl-CPG from the conserved isoleucine residing in the repeating motif of TigB. Furthermore, we obtained a crystal structure of TigE, which reveals an unusual tyrosyl ligation to the auxiliary I [4Fe-4S] cluster, provided by a glycine-tyrosine-tryptophan motif unique to all CP synthases. Further, we show that this unique tyrosyl ligation is absolutely required for TigE activity. Together, our results provide insight into how CP synthases perform this unique reaction.

13C Electron Nuclear Double Resonance Spectroscopy-Guided Molecular Dynamics Computations Reveal the Structure of the Enzyme-Substrate Complex of an Active, N-Linked Glycosylated Lipoxygenase.

Lipoxygenase (LOX) enzymes produce important cell-signaling mediators, yet attempts to capture and characterize LOX-substrate complexes by X-ray co-crystallography are commonly unsuccessful, requiring development of alternative structural methods. We previously reported the structure of the complex of soybean lipoxygenase, SLO, with substrate linoleic acid (LA), as visualized through the integration of 13C/1H electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) computations. However, this required substitution of the catalytic mononuclear, nonheme iron by the structurally faithful, yet inactive Mn2+ ion as a spin probe. Unlike canonical Fe-LOXs from plants and animals, LOXs from pathogenic fungi contain active mononuclear Mn2+ metallocenters. Here, we report the ground-state active-site structure of the native, fully glycosylated fungal LOX from rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, MoLOX complexed with LA, as obtained through the 13C/1H ENDOR-guided MD approach. The catalytically important distance between the hydrogen donor, carbon-11 (C11), and the acceptor, Mn-bound oxygen, (donor-acceptor distance, DAD) for the MoLOX-LA complex derived in this fashion is 3.4 ± 0.1 Å. The difference of the MoLOX-LA DAD from that of the SLO-LA complex, 3.1 ± 0.1 Å, is functionally important, although is only 0.3 Å, despite the MoLOX complex having a Mn-C11 distance of 5.4 Å and a "carboxylate-out" substrate-binding orientation, whereas the SLO complex has a 4.9 Å Mn-C11 distance and a "carboxylate-in" substrate orientation. The results provide structural insights into reactivity differences across the LOX family, give a foundation for guiding development of MoLOX inhibitors, and highlight the robustness of the ENDOR-guided MD approach to describe LOX-substrate structures.

Identification of a poly-cyclopropylglycine-containing peptide via bioinformatic mapping of radical S-adenosylmethionine enzymes.

Peptide-derived natural products are a large class of bioactive molecules that often contain chemically challenging modifications. In the biosynthesis of ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs), radical-SAM (rSAM) enzymes have been shown to catalyze the formation of ether, thioether, and carbon-carbon bonds on the precursor peptide. The installation of these bonds typically establishes the skeleton of the mature RiPP. To facilitate the search for unexplored rSAM-dependent RiPPs for the community, we employed a bioinformatic strategy to screen a subfamily of peptide-modifying rSAM enzymes which are known to bind up to three [4Fe-4S] clusters. A sequence similarity network was used to partition related families of rSAM enzymes into >250 clusters. Using representative sequences, genome neighborhood diagrams were generated using the Genome Neighborhood Tool. Manual inspection of bacterial genomes yielded numerous putative rSAM-dependent RiPP pathways with unique features. From this analysis, we identified and experimentally characterized the rSAM enzyme, TvgB, from the tvg gene cluster from Halomonas anticariensis. In the tvg gene cluster, the precursor peptide, TvgA, is comprised of a repeating TVGG motif. Structural characterization of the TvgB product revealed the repeated formation of cyclopropylglycine, where a new bond is formed between the γ-carbons on the precursor valine. This novel RiPP modification broadens the functional potential of rSAM enzymes and validates the proposed bioinformatic approach as a practical broad search tool for the discovery of new RiPP topologies.

How a Subfamily of Radical S-Adenosylmethionine Enzymes Became a Mainstay of Ribosomally Synthesized and Post-translationally Modified Peptide Discovery.

Radical S-adenosylmethionine (rSAM) enzymes are a large and diverse superfamily of enzymes, some of which are known to participate in the biosynthesis of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Specifically, a subfamily of rSAM proteins with an elongated C-terminus known as a SPASM domain have become a fixation in the discovery of new RiPP natural products. Arguably, a structural study, a bioinformatic study, and a functional study built the foundation of the research for rSAM-SPASM-protein-modified RiPPs. In this Review, we focus on these three studies and how they initiated what has become an increasingly productive field. In addition, we discuss the current state of RiPPs that depends on rSAM-SPASM proteins and provide guidelines to consider in future research. Lastly, we discuss how genome mining tools have become a powerful means to identify and predict new RiPP natural products. Despite the state of our current knowledge, we do not completely understand the relationship of rSAM-SPASM chemistry, substrate recognition, and the structure-function relationship as it pertains to RiPP biosynthesis, and as such, there remain many interesting findings waiting to be discovered in the future.

Kinetic Characterization of the C-H Activation Step for the Lipoxygenase from the Pathogenic Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae: Impact of N-Linked Glycosylation.

Lipoxygenases from pathogenic fungi belong to the lipoxygenase family of enzymes, which catalyze C-H activation of polyunsaturated fatty acids to form a diverse set of cell-signaling hydroperoxides. While the lipoxygenase catalytic domains are structurally and functionally similar, these fungal enzymes are decorated with N-linked glycans. The impact of N-linked glycans on the structure and function of these enzymes remains largely unknown. One exemplary system is MoLOX, a lipoxygenase from the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, that is emerging as an important target for the devastating rice blast disease. Herein, we demonstrate that hydrogen transfer, associated with C-H cleavage of the substrate linoleic acid by MoLOX, is rate-determining and occurs by a hydrogen tunneling mechanism. Using the differential enthalpic barrier for hydrogen and deuterium transfer, ΔEa, as a kinetic reporter of tunneling efficiency, a disproportionate increase in the activation energy for deuterium transfer is observed upon treatment of MoLOX with a peptide:N-glycosidase that cleaves N-linked carbohydrates from the protein. This increased ΔEa is consistent with an impairment of substrate positioning in the enzyme-substrate complex for both the tunneling ready state and the ground state. These results provide new insight into the functional consequences of N-linked glycosylation on lipoxygenase C-H activation and have important implications for MoLOX inhibitor design.

Zn2+-binding in the glutamate-rich region of the intrinsically disordered protein prothymosin-alpha.

Prothymosin-α is a small, multifunctional intrinsically disordered protein associated with cell survival and proliferation which binds multiple Zn2+ ions and undergoes partial folding. The interaction between prothymosin-α and at least two of its protein targets is significantly enhanced in the presence of Zn2+ ions, suggesting that Zn2+ binding plays a role in the protein's function. The primary sequence of prothymosin-α is highly acidic, with almost 50% comprised of Asp and Glu, and is unusual for a Zn2+-binding protein as it lacks Cys and His residues. To gain a better understanding of the nature of the Zn2+-prothymosin-α interactions and the protein's ability to discriminate Zn2+ over other divalent cations (e.g., Ca2+, Co2+, Mg2+) we synthesized a set of three model peptides and characterized the effect of metal binding using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. ESI MS data reveal that the native peptide model of the glutamic acid rich region binds 4 Zn2+ ions with apparent, stepwise Kd values that are, at highest, in the tens of micromolar range. A peptide model with the same amino acid composition as the native sequence, but with the residues arranged randomly, showed no evidence of structural change by CD upon introduction of Zn2+. These results suggest that the high net negative charge of the glutamic acid-rich region of prothymosin-α is not a sufficient criterion for Zn2+ to induce a structural change; rather, Zn2+ binding to prothymosin-α is sequence specific, providing important insight into the behavior of intrinsically disordered proteins.