Engineering Microbiology (Jun 2025)

Cytochrome P450-catalyzed allylic oxidation of pentalenene to 1-deoxypentalenic acid in pentalenolactone biosynthesis

  • Jing Li,
  • Chengde Zhang,
  • Shiwen Wu,
  • Jiao Xue,
  • Ke Chen,
  • Zixin Deng,
  • Dongqing Zhu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engmic.2025.100206
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 2
p. 100206

Abstract

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Pentalenolactone is a sesquiterpene antibiotic from Streptomyces. Its biosynthetic pathway has been elucidated, except for the oxidation of pentalen-13-al to 1-deoxypentalenic acid. In this study, we show that cytochrome P450 pentalenene oxygenase catalyzed the formation of 1-deoxypentalenic acid. Ferredoxin XNR_5179 and ferredoxin reductase XNR_4478 from S. albus are suitable redox proteins for pentalenene oxygenase. The biosynthetic pathway presented fills a gap in the biosynthetic pathway of pentalenolactone and provides an example of cytochrome P450 enzyme activity being affected by redox proteins.

Keywords