Molecules (Nov 2021)

Lentzeacins A-E, New Bacterial-Derived 2,5- and 2,6-Disubstituted Pyrazines from a BGC-Rich Soil Bacterium <i>Lentzea</i> sp. GA3-008

  • Hong-Bing Liu,
  • Jack R. Davison,
  • Rahim Rajwani,
  • Gengxiang Zhao,
  • Shannon I. Ohlemacher,
  • Robert D. O’Connor,
  • Carole A. Bewley

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26237197
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 23
p. 7197

Abstract

Read online

Pyrazines (1,4-diazirines) are an important group of natural products that have tremendous monetary value in the food and fragrance industries and can exhibit a wide range of biological effects including antineoplastic, antidiabetic and antibiotic activities. As part of a project investigating the secondary metabolites present in understudied and chemically rich Actinomycetes, we isolated a series of six pyrazines from a soil-derived Lentzea sp. GA3-008, four of which are new. Here we describe the structures of lentzeacins A-E (1, 3, 5 and 6) along with two known analogues (2 and 4) and the porphyrin zincphyrin. The structures were determined by NMR spectroscopy and HR-ESI-MS. The suite of compounds present in Lentzea sp. includes 2,5-disubstituted pyrazines (compounds 2, 4, and 6) together with the new 2,6-disubstituted isomers (compounds 1, 3 and 5), a chemical class that is uncommon. We used long-read Nanopore sequencing to assemble a draft genome sequence of Lentzea sp. which revealed the presence of 40 biosynthetic gene clusters. Analysis of classical di-modular and single module non-ribosomal peptide synthase genes, and cyclic dipeptide synthases narrows down the possibilities for the biosynthesis of the pyrazines present in this strain.

Keywords