Mini-review: Ergothioneine and ovothiol biosyntheses, an unprecedented trans-sulfur strategy in natural product biosynthesis

As one of the most abundant elements on earth, sulfur is part of many small molecular metabolites and is key to their biological activities. Over the past few decades, some general strategies have been discovered for the incorporation of sulfur into natural products. In this review, we summarize recent efforts in elucidating the biosynthetic details for two sulfur-containing metabolites, ergothioneine and ovothiol. Their biosyntheses involve an unprecedented trans-sulfur strategy, a combination of a mononuclear non-heme iron enzyme-catalyzed oxidative C-S bond formation reaction and a PLP enzyme-mediated C-S lyase reaction.R01 GM093903 - NIGMS NIH HHSAccepted manuscrip

Anaerobic Origin of Ergothioneine

Ergothioneine is a sulfur metabolite that occurs in microorganisms, fungi, plants, and animals. The physiological function of ergothioneine is not clear. In recent years broad scientific consensus has formed around the idea that cellular ergothioneine primarily protects against reactive oxygen species. Herein we provide evidence that this focus on oxygen chemistry may be too narrow. We describe two enzymes from the strictly anaerobic green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium limicola that mediate oxygen-independent biosynthesis of ergothioneine. This anoxic origin suggests that ergothioneine is also important for oxygen-independent life. Furthermore, one of the discovered ergothioneine biosynthetic enzymes provides the first example of a rhodanese-like enzyme that transfers sulfur to non-activated carbon