Two separate gene clusters encode the biosynthetic pathway for the meroterpenoids, austinol and dehydroaustinol in Aspergillus nidulans
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Issue Date
2012-03-14Author
Lo, Hsien-Chun
Entwistle, Ruth A.
Guo, Chun-Jun
Ahuja, Manmeet
Szewczyk, Edyta
Hung, Jui-Hsiang
Chiang, Yi-Ming
Oakley, Berl R.
Wang, Clay C. C.
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
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Meroterpenoids are a class of fungal natural products that are produced from polyketide and terpenoid precursors. An understanding of meroterpenoid biosynthesis at the genetic level should facilitate engineering of second-generation molecules and increasing production of first-generation compounds. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans has previously been found to produce two meroterpenoids, austinol and dehydroaustinol. Using targeted deletions that we created, we have determined that, surprisingly, two separate gene clusters are required for meroterpenoid biosynthesis. One is a cluster of four genes including a polyketide synthase gene, ausA. The second is a cluster of ten additional genes including a prenyltransferase gene, ausN, located on a separate chromosome. Chemical analysis of mutant extracts enabled us to isolate 3,5-dimethylorsellinic acid and ten additional meroterpenoids that are either intermediates or shunt products from the biosynthetic pathway. Six of them were identified as novel meroterpenoids in this study. Our data, in aggregate, allow us to propose a complete biosynthetic pathway for the A. nidulans meroterpenoids.
Description
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://doi.org/10.1021/ja209809t.
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Citation
Lo, H.-C., Entwistle, R., Guo, C.-J., Ahuja, M., Szewczyk, E., Hung, J.-H., … Wang, C. C. C. (2012). Two separate gene clusters encode the biosynthetic pathway for the meroterpenoids, austinol and dehydroaustinol in Aspergillus nidulans. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 134(10), 4709–4720. http://doi.org/10.1021/ja209809t
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