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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004, p. 6865-6870, Vol. 70, No. 11
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.11.6865-6870.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Long-Chain N-Acyltyrosine Synthases from Environmental DNA

Sean F. Brady, Carol J. Chao,{dagger} and Jon Clardy*

Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Received 23 February 2004/ Accepted 4 July 2004

The heterologous expression of DNA extracted directly from environmental samples (environmental DNA [eDNA]) in easily cultured hosts provides access to natural products produced by previously inaccessible microorganisms. When eDNA cosmid libraries were screened in Escherichia coli for antibacterially active clones, long-chain N-acyltyrosine-producing clones were found in every eDNA library. These apparently common natural products have not been previously described from screening extracts of cultured bacteria for biologically active natural products. Of the 11 long-chain N-acyl amino acid synthases (NASs) that were characterized, 10 are unique sequences. A predicted protein of previously unknown function from Nitrosomonas europaea, a gram-negative nitrifying beta-proteobacterium, is 14 to 37% identical to eDNA NASs. When cloned into E. coli, this open reading frame confers the production of long-chain N-acyltyrosines to the host and is therefore the first NAS from a cultured bacterium to be functionally characterized. Understanding the role that long-chain N-acyl amino acids play in soil microbial communities should now be feasible with the identification of a cultured organism that has the genetic capacity to produce these compounds.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Phone: (617) 432-2845. Fax: (617) 432-3702. E-mail: jon_clardy{at}hms.harvard.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004, p. 6865-6870, Vol. 70, No. 11
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.11.6865-6870.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Clardy, J., Brady, S. F. (2007). Cyclic AMP Directly Activates NasP, an N-Acyl Amino Acid Antibiotic Biosynthetic Enzyme Cloned from an Uncultured {beta}-Proteobacterium. J. Bacteriol. 189: 6487-6489 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Whitaker, R. J., Banfield, J. F. (2005). Population Dynamics Through the Lens of Extreme Environments. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 59: 259-277 [Full Text]  


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