Diisonitrile Natural Product SF2768 Functions As a Chalkophore That Mediates Copper Acquisition in <i>Streptomyces thioluteus</i>

A nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene cluster (<i>sfa</i>) was identified in <i>Streptomyces thioluteus</i> to direct the biosynthesis of the diisonitrile antibiotic SF2768. Its biosynthetic pathway was reasonably proposed based on bioinformatics analysis, metabolic profiles of mutants, and the elucidation of the intermediate and shunt product structures. Bioinformatics-based alignment found a putative ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter related to iron import within the biosynthetic gene cluster, which implied that the product might be a siderophore. However, characterization of the metal-binding properties by high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS), metal–ligand titration, thin-layer chromatography (TLC), and chrome azurol S (CAS) assays revealed that the final product SF2768 and its diisonitrile derivatives specifically bind copper, rather than iron, to form stable complexes. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis revealed that the intracellular cupric content of <i>S</i>. <i>thioluteus</i> significantly increased upon incubation with the copper–SF2768 complex, direct evidence for the copper acquisition function of SF2768. Further <i>in vivo</i> functional characterization of the transport elements for the copper–SF2768 complexes not only confirmed the chalkophore identity of the compound but also gave initial clues into the copper uptake mechanism of this nonmethanotrophic microorganism