Directed evolution of 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogalactonate aldolase to replace 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonic acid 7-phosphate synthase

Directed evolution of 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogalactonate (KDPGal) aldolase for microbial synthesis of shikimate pathway products provides an alternate strategy to circumvent the competition for phosphoenolpyruvate between 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonic acid 7-phosphate (DAHP) synthase and the phosphoenolpyruvate:carbohydrate phosphotransferase system in Escherichia coli. E. coli KDPGal aldolase was evolved using a combination of error-prone polymerase chain reaction, DNA shuffling, and multiple-site-directed mutagenesis to afford KDPGal aldolase variant NR8.276-2, which exhibits a 60-fold improvement in the ratio kcat/KM relative to that of wild-type E. coli KDPGal aldolase in catalyzing the addition of pyruvate to d-erythrose 4-phosphate to form DAHP. On the basis of its nucleotide sequence, NR8.276-2 contains seven amino acid changes from the wild-type E. coli KDPGal aldolase. Amplified expression of NR8.276-2 in the DAHP synthase and shikimate dehydrogenase-deficient E. coli strain NR7 under fed-batch fermentor-controlled cultivation conditions resulted in synthesis of 13 g/L 3-dehydroshikimic acid in 6.5% molar yield from glucose. Increased coexpression of the irreversible downstream enzyme 3-dehydroquinate synthase increased production of 3-dehydroshikimic acid to 19 g/L in 9.7% molar yield from glucose. Coamplification with transketolase, which increases d-erythrose 4-phosphate availability, afforded 16 g/L 3-dehydroshikimic acid in 8.5% molar yield.     

Creation of a shikimate pathway variant

The competition between the Escherichia coli carbohydrate phosphotransferase system and 3-deoxy-d-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate (DAHP) synthase for phosphoenolpyruvate limits the concentration and yield of natural products microbially synthesized via the shikimate pathway. To circumvent this competition for phosphoenolpyruvate, a shikimate pathway variant has been created. 2-Keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogalactonate (KDPGal) aldolases encoded by Escherichia coli dgoA and Klebsiella pneumoniae dgoA are subjected to directed evolution. The evolved KDPGal aldolase isozymes exhibit 4-8-fold higher specific activities relative to that for native KDPGal aldolase with respect to catalyzing the condensation of pyruvate and d-erythrose 4-phosphate to produce DAHP. To probe the ability of the created shikimate pathway variant to support microbial growth and metabolism, growth rates and synthesis of 3-dehydroshikimate are examined for E. coli constructs that lack phosphoenolpruvate-based DAHP synthase activity and rely on evolved KDPGal aldolase for biosynthesis of shikimate pathway intermediates and products.     

Benzene-free synthesis of hydroquinone.

All current routes for the synthesis of hydroquinone utilize benzene as the starting material. An alternate route to hydroquinone has now been elaborated from glucose. While benzene is a volatile carcinogen derived from nonrenewable fossil fuel feedstocks, glucose is nonvolatile, nontoxic, and derived from renewable plant polysacharrides. Glucose is first converted into quinic acid using microbial catalysis. Quinic acid is then chemically converted into hydroquinone. Under fermentor-controlled conditions, Escherichia coli QP1.1/pKD12.138 synthesizes 49 g/L of quinic acid from glucose in 20% (mol/mol) yield. Oxidative decarboxylation of quinic acid in clarified, decolorized, ammonium ion-free fermentation broth with NaOCl and subsequent dehydration of the intermediate 3(R),5(R)-trihydroxycyclohexanone afforded purified hydroquinone in 87% yield. Halide-free, oxidative decarboxylation of quinic acid in fermentation broth with stoichiometric quantities of (NH(4))(2)Ce(SO(4))(3) and V(2)O(5) afforded hydroquinone in 91% and 85% yield, respectively. Conditions suitable for oxidative decarboxylation of quinic acid with catalytic amounts of metal oxidant were also identified. Ag(3)PO(4) at 2 mol % relative to quinic acid in fermentation broth catalyzed the formation of hydroquinone in 74% yield with K(2)S(2)O(8) serving as the cooxidant. Beyond establishing a fundamentally new route to an important chemical building block, oxidation of microbe-synthesized quinic acid provides an example of how the toxicity of aromatics toward microbes can be circumvented by interfacing chemical catalysis with biocatalysis.     

Hydroaromatic equilibration during biosynthesis of shikimic acid

The expense and limited availability of shikimic acid isolated from plants has impeded utilization of this hydroaromatic as a synthetic starting material. Although recombinant Escherichia coli catalysts have been constructed that synthesize shikimic acid from glucose, the yield, titer, and purity of shikimic acid are reduced by the sizable concentrations of quinic acid and 3-dehydroshikimic acid that are formed as byproducts. The 28.0 g/L of shikimic acid synthesized in 14% yield by E. coli SP1.1/pKD12.138 in 48 h as a 1.6:1.0:0.65 (mol/mol/mol) shikimate/quinate/dehydroshikimate mixture is typical of synthesized product mixtures. Quinic acid formation results from the reduction of 3-dehydroquinic acid catalyzed by aroE-encoded shikimate dehydrogenase. Is quinic acid derived from reduction of 3-dehydroquinic acid prior to synthesis of shikimic acid? Alternatively, does quinic acid result from a microbe-catalyzed equilibration involving transport of initially synthesized shikimic acid back into the cytoplasm and operation of the common pathway of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in the reverse of its normal biosynthetic direction? E. coli SP1.1/pSC5.214A, a construct incapable of de novo synthesis of shikimic acid, catalyzed the conversion of shikimic acid added to its culture medium into a 1.1:1.0:0.70 molar ratio of shikimate/quinate/dehydroshikimate within 36 h. Further mechanistic insights were afforded by elaborating the relationship between transport of shikimic acid and formation of quinic acid. These experiments indicate that formation of quinic acid during biosynthesis of shikimic acid results from a microbe-catalyzed equilibration of initially synthesized shikimic acid. By apparently repressing shikimate transport, the aforementioned E. coli SP1.1/pKD12.138 synthesized 52 g/L of shikimic acid in 18% yield from glucose as a 14:1.0:3.0 shikimate/quinate/dehydroshikimate mixture.     

Microbial synthesis of the energetic material precursor 1,2,4-butanetriol

The lack of a route to precursor 1,2,4-butanetriol that is amenable to large-scale synthesis has impeded substitution of 1,2,4-butanetriol trinitrate for nitroglycerin. To identify an alternative to the current commercial synthesis of racemic d,l-1,2,4-butanetriol involving NaBH4 reduction of esterified d,l-malic acid, microbial syntheses of d- and l-1,2,4-butanetriol have been established. These microbial syntheses rely on the creation of biosynthetic pathways that do not exist in nature. Oxidation of d-xylose by Pseudomonas fragi provides d-xylonic acid in 70% yield. Escherichia coli DH5alpha/pWN6.186A then catalyzes the conversion of d-xylonic acid into d-1,2,4-butanetriol in 25% yield. P. fragi is also used to oxidize l-arabinose to a mixture of l-arabino-1,4-lactone and l-arabinonic acid in 54% overall yield. After hydrolysis of the lactone, l-arabinonic acid is converted to l-1,2,4-butanetriol in 35% yield using E. coli BL21(DE3)/pWN6.222A. As a catalytic route to 1,2,4-butanetriol, microbial synthesis avoids the high H2 pressures and elevated temperatures required by catalytic hydrogenation of malic acid.     

邻苯二酚甲基化合成愈创木酚

愈创木酚是一种重要的化工原料 ,可用于合成止咳祛痰的药物愈创木酚磺酸钾和香料香兰素 .目前愈创木酚是由邻甲氧基苯胺重氮化反应制得 ,工艺路线长 ,产率低 .本文由邻苯二酚和硫酸二甲酯反应合成愈创木酚取得较好的结果     

E.coli O86 O-Antigen全保护五糖重复单元的化学简易合成

以5个单糖组分为原料, 经过7步, 以21%的总产率得到E.coli O86抗原全保护的五糖重复单元.在合成路线中, 充分利用糖基化反应的立体选择性原则, 结合HClO4-SiO2固体催化剂和“IP”策略, 大大提高了合成的效率. 整个合成路线设计操作简单, 选择性高, 消耗低, 产率高, 可以用于快速高效地合成其它一些具有生物活性的寡糖分子.     

Application of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry to synthetic in vitro glycolysis studies

We propose an approach designed to reconstitute a metabolic pathway composed of multistep biochemical reactions, rather than to dissect the individual reactions that make up the pathway. A synthetic in vitro glycolysis was reconstructed from ten purified Escherichia coli (E. coli) enzymes to obtain a better understanding of the regulation of sequential enzymatic reactions. The key to the success of this approach is the ability to perform direct and simultaneous determination of the diverse metabolic intermediates in the pathway by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry. We observed that the pathway is regulated by a delicate balance between the changing metabolite concentrations and behaves like a natural biological oscillating network that has hitherto not been reported for E. coli glycolysis. The end-product, pyruvate, was periodically synthesized from glucose at an overall efficiency of 30%, corresponding to an average of 90% conversion efficiency for each of the ten steps involved. This approach is likely useful for the synthesis of natural products requiring complex sequential biocatalytic reactions.     

An artificial pathway to 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid allows generation of new aminocoumarin antibiotic recognized by catechol transporters of E. coli

An artificial operon was synthesized, consisting of the genes for chorismate pyruvate-lyase of E. coli and for 4-hydroxybenzoate 3-hydroxylase of Corynebacterium cyclohexanicum. This operon, directing the biosynthesis of 3,4-dihdroxybenzoate, was expressed in the heterologous expression host Streptomyces coelicolor M512, together with a modified biosynthetic gene cluster for the aminocoumarin antibiotic clorobiocin. The resulting strain produced a clorobiocin derivative containing a 3,4-dihdroxybenzoyl moiety. Its structure was confirmed by MS and NMR analysis, and it was found to be a potent inhibitor of the gyrases from Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Bioassays against different E. coli mutants suggested that this compound is actively imported by catechol siderophore transporters in the cell envelope. This study provides an example of the structure of a natural product that can be rationally modified by synthetic biology.     

托特罗定氢溴酸盐的合成

以对甲酚和肉桂酸为起始原料，经脱水、环合、水解、还原、酯化及胺化等反应合成托特罗定氢溴酸盐，结构经^1H NMR和EI-MS进行确证．总收率为63％，此方法成本低廉，工艺安全简便，利于工业化生产．     

Improved synthesis of UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)galactose and a first synthesis of UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)glucose for the site-specific linking of biomolecules via modified glycan residues using glycosyltransferases

The potential of wild-type and mutant glycosyltransferases to produce glycoconjugates carrying sugar moieties with chemical handles has made it possible to conjugate biomolecules with orthogonal reacting groups at specific sites. The synthesis of UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)galactose has been previously carried out, albeit with difficulty and low efficiency. A modified approach has been developed for the synthesis of UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)glucose and UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)galactose, allowing better access to the desired test compounds, the UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)glucose and UDP-2-(2-ketopropyl)galactose analogs were synthesized in eight steps and 4.8% and 5.3% overall yield, respectively, an improvement over the first generation synthesis involving eight steps and an overall yield of 0.7%.     

大黄酚和大黄酸的合成

以3-硝基邻苯二甲酸为原料,经脱水、傅克酰基化、还原、重氮化、水解和环合反应合成了大黄酚(6),总收率40.4%。6再经乙酰化、氧化、脱乙酰化反应合成了大黄酸(8),总收率22.3%。6和8的结构经1H NMR表征。     

Mass spectrometric strategies for the analysis of polar industrial chemicals and their by-products in wastewater and surface water

The purification of a 6x-histidine tagged viral coat protein (L1) in expanded mode directly following chemical extraction from the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli HMS174(DE3) is investigated. Chelating adsorbents based on the ligands iminodiacetic acid (IDA) and nitrilotriacetic acid, using chelated metal ions Ni2+ and Cu2+, were compared. The use of Ni2+-IDA resulted in a high purification factor (9.7) and moderate recovery yield (58%). However, the eluted fractions had an overall L1 purity less than 50% and were therefore significantly contaminated with other host proteins. In batch tests, Cu2+-IDA was found to be superior to all other combinations as it was characterised by higher binding capacities and faster adsorption kinetics. A subsequent immobilised metal affinity chromatography-expanded bed adsorption experiment using Cu2+-IDA resulted in a higher L1 purification factor (20), recovery yield (71%) and purity (89%). The process presented here combines direct chemical extraction with expanded bed recovery. It is simpler than traditional methods, and should find more widespread application in the recovery of inclusion body proteins. Robust pseudo-affinity ligands such as metal chelates show potential for selective primary recovery of unfolded proteins, and could be used for further processing such as on-column refolding.     

(3E)-胆甾-4-烯-3,6-二酮-3-肟及其类似物的合成

以胆甾醇为原料,经氯铬酸吡啶氧化生成胆甾-4-烯-3,6-二酮(2),2与盐酸羟胺反应合成了(3E)-胆甾-4-烯-3,6-二酮-3-肟(3),总收率66%。利用合成3的反应条件合成了两个3的类似物——(3E)豆甾-4-烯-3,6-二酮-3-肟(6)和(3E)-谷甾-4-烯-3,6-二酮-3-肟(7)。2,3,6和7的结构经NMR和IR表征。     

Toxicity assessment of heavy metals and organic compounds using CellSense biosensor with E.coli

A new strategy using an arnperometric biosensor with Escherichia coli （E. coli） that provides a rapid toxicity determination of chemical compounds is described. The CellSense biosensor system comprises a biological component immobilized in intimate contact with a transducer which converts the biochemical signal into a quantifiable electrical signal. Toxicity assessment of heavy metals using E.coli biosensors could be finished within 30 min and the 50% effective concentrations （ECso） values of four heavy metals were determined. The results shows that inhibitory effects of four heavy metals to E.coli can be ranked in a decreasing order of Hg^2＋ 〉 Cu^2＋ 〉 Zn^2＋ 〉 Ni^2＋, which accords to the results of conventional bacterial counting method. The toxicity test of organic compounds by using CellSense biosensor was also demonstrated. The CellSense biosensor with E. coli shows a good, reproducible behavior and can be used for reproducible measurements.     

Total synthesis of dispyrin, purpurealidin E, and aplysamine-1

Bromotyrosine alkaloids dispyrin (1), purpurealidin E (2), and aplysamine-1 (3) isolated from marine sponge, were synthesized from commercially available tyramine (4) as a common starting material. The overall yield was 18%, 39%, and 22% for 1 from 4 in 5 steps, 2 in 5 steps, and 3 in 6 steps, respectively.     

Synthetic transformation of ptychantin into forskolin and 1,9-dideoxyforskolin

Forskolin (1), a highly oxygenated labdane diterpenoid and an activator of adenylate cyclase, has been synthesized in 12 steps and 12% overall yield from ptychantin A (4), which has been isolated from liverwort Ptychanthus striatus in good yield. The 1alpha-hydroxy group was furnished by stereoselective reduction of the corresponding carbonyl group by sodium in t-BuOH. The 9alpha-hydroxy group was introduced stereoselectively by epoxidation of delta(9.11)-enolether. 1,9-Dideoxyforskolin (2), an inhibitor of glucose transporter, has been synthesized in 8 steps and 37% overall yield. The hydroxy group at C-1 was removed by solid-state thicarbonylimidazolation and subsequent radical cleavage.     

A mild conversion of phenylpropropnoid into rare phenylbutanoids: (E)-4-(2,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)but-1,3-diene and (E)-4-(2,4,5-trimethozypheny)but-1-ene occuring in Zingiber cassumunar

(E)-4-(2',4',5'-trimethoxyphenyl)but-1,3-diene (4) and (E)-4-(2',4',5'-trimethoxyphenyl)but-1-ene (6), bioactive phenylbutanoids of Zingiber cassumunar, were synthesized exclusively with trans geometry. Treatment of methylmagnesium iodide with (E)-2',4',5'-trimethoxycinnamaldehyde (2), an oxidized product of abundantly available toxic (Z)-phenylpropanoid (1) of Acorus calamus, gave (E)-4-(2',4',5'-trimethoxyphenyl)but-3-en-2-ol (3) which upon dehydration with copper sulphate/silica gel under microwave irradiation for 3 min afforded 4 in 58% yield. Further, catalytic hydrogenation of 4 with 10% Pd/C afforded 4-(2',4',5'-trimethoxyphenyl)butane (5) which upon dehydrogenation with DDQ/SiO2 afforded hypolipidemic 6 in 54% yield.     

Discovery of natural berberine-derived nitroimidazoles as potentially multi-targeting agents against drug-resistant Escherichia coli

A series of natural berberine-derived nitroimidazoles as novel antibacterial agents were designed, synthesized and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR), infrared spectra(IR), and high resolution mass spectra(HRMS) spectra. The antimicrobial evaluation showed that some target molecules exhibited moderate to good inhibitory activities against the tested bacteria and fungi including clinical drug-resistant strains isolated from infected patients. Especially, 2-fluorobenzyl derivative8 f not only gave strong activity against drug-resistant E. coli with the minimal inhibitory concentration(MIC) value of0.003 m M, 33-fold more active than norfloxacin, but also exhibited low toxicity toward RAW 264.7 cells and less propensity to trigger resistance. The aqueous solubility and Clog P values of target compounds were investigated to elucidate the structureactivity relationships. Molecular docking and quantum chemical studies for compound 8 f rationally explained its antibacterial effect. The further exploration of antibacterial mechanism revealed that the highly active compound 8 f could effectively permeabilize E. coli cell membrane and intercalate into DNA isolated from resistant E. coli to form 8 f-DNA complex that might block DNA replication to exert the powerful bioactivities. Compound 8 f could also selectively address resistant E. coli from a mixture of various strains.     

Sequential fractionation with concurrent chemical and toxicological characterization of the combustion products of chlorogenic acid

Chlorogenic acid is the most abundant polyphenol found in the tobacco plant. The biological effects of its combustion products remain largely unknown. In this study, chlorogenic acid was burned at 640 °C for 2 min and the particulate matter of the smoke was collected onto Cambridge filter pads followed by selective extraction in five different solvents. Various fractions of the chlorogenic acid combustion products were tested for induction of micronuclei in V79 Chinese hamster fibroblast cells. Over 40 compounds were identified in the dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) extract by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC/TOF-MS). The DMSO extract was then fractionated into three major fractions by preparative LC. The fraction inducing the highest degree of toxicity was further separated into four sub-fractions. The sub-fraction responsible for the most toxic response was determined to contain catechol as its major component. The overall reproducibility of the combustion, the extraction procedure and the chemical characterization of the compounds responsible for the toxicity in the chlorogenic acid smoke were evaluated by LC/TOF-MS.