The bottromycin epimerase BotH defines a group of atypical α/β-hydrolase-fold enzymes

D-amino acids endow peptides with diverse, desirable properties, but the post-translational and site-specific epimerization of L-amino acids into their D-counterparts is rare and chemically challenging. Bottromycins are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides that have overcome this challenge and feature a D-aspartate (D-Asp), which was proposed to arise spontaneously during biosynthesis. We have identified the highly unusual α/β-hydrolase (ABH) fold enzyme BotH as a peptide epimerase responsible for the post-translational epimerization of L-Asp to D-Asp during bottromycin biosynthesis. The biochemical characterization of BotH combined with the structures of BotH and the BotH–substrate complex allowed us to propose a mechanism for this reaction. Bioinformatic analyses of BotH homologs show that similar ABH enzymes are found in diverse biosynthetic gene clusters. This places BotH as the founding member of a group of atypical ABH enzymes that may be able to epimerize non-Asp stereocenters across different families of secondary metabolites

New developments in RiPP discovery, enzymology and engineering

Ribosomally-synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) are a large group of natural products. A community-driven review in 2013 described the emerging commonalities in the biosynthesis of RiPPs and the opportunities they offered for bioengineering and genome mining. Since then, the field has seen tremendous advances in understanding of the mechanisms by which nature assembles these compounds, in engineering their biosynthetic machinery for a wide range of applications, and in the discovery of entirely new RiPP families using bioinformatic tools developed specifically for this compound class. The First International Conference on RiPPs was held in 2019, and the meeting participants assembled the current review describing new developments since 2013. The review discusses the new classes of RiPPs that have been discovered, the advances in our understanding of the installation of both primary and secondary post-translational modifications, and the mechanisms by which the enzymes recognize the leader peptides in their substrates. In addition, genome mining tools used for RiPP discovery are discussed as well as various strategies for RiPP engineering. An outlook section presents directions for future research