Title
Discovery and Biosynthesis of Antimicrobial Phenethylamine Alkaloids from the Marine Flavobacterium Tenacibaculum discolor sv11
Date Issued
22 April 2022
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
review
Publisher(s)
American Chemical Society
Abstract
The bacterial genus Tenacibaculum has been associated with various ecological roles in marine environments. Members of this genus can act, for example, as pathogens, predators, or episymbionts. However, natural products produced by these bacteria are still unknown. In the present work, we investigated a Tenacibaculum strain for the production of antimicrobial metabolites. Six new phenethylamine (PEA)-containing alkaloids, discolins A and B (1 and 2), dispyridine (3), dispyrrolopyridine A and B (4 and 5), and dispyrrole (6), were isolated from media produced by the predatory bacterium Tenacibaculum discolor sv11. Chemical structures were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data. Alkaloids 4 and 5 exhibited strong activity against Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis DSM10, Mycobacterium smegmatis ATCC607, Listeria monocytogenes DSM20600, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.5 to 4 μg/mL, and moderate activity against Candida albicans FH2173 and Aspergillus flavus ATCC9170. Compound 6 displayed moderate antibacterial activities against Gram-positive bacteria. Dispyrrolopyridine A (4) was active against efflux pump deficient Escherichia coli ATCC25922 tolC, with an MIC value of 8 μg/mL, as well as against Caenorhabditis elegans N2 with an MIC value of 32 μg/mL. Other compounds were inactive against these microorganisms. The biosynthetic route toward discolins A and B (1 and 2) was investigated using in vivo and in vitro experiments. It comprises an enzymatic decarboxylation of phenylalanine to PEA catalyzed by DisA, followed by a nonenzymatic condensation to form the central imidazolium ring. This spontaneous formation of the imidazolium core was verified by means of a synthetic one-pot reaction using the respective building blocks. Six additional strains belonging to three Tenacibaculum species were able to produce discolins, and several DisA analogues were identified in various marine flavobacterial genera, suggesting the widespread presence of PEA-derived compounds in marine ecosystems.
Start page
1039
End page
1051
Volume
85
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biología celular, Microbiología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85128793848
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Natural Products
ISSN of the container
01633864
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC No. 201908080177). Furthermore, the authors would like to thank the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for funding under the framework of PROPERU, and L.L.-O., V. L.-O., and L.A.-M. are thankful to FONDECYT (Proyecto 041-2019 FONDECYT-BM). The Schäberle lab is part of the German Center of Infection Research (DZIF) and supported by the Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts (HMWK) via the LOEWE Center for Insect Biotechnology and Bioresources.
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