Antibiotics: past, present and future

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) running on hydrogen are attractive alternative power supplies for a range of applications, with in situ release of the required hydrogen from a stable liquid offering one way of ensuring its safe storage and transportation before use. The use of methanol is particularly interesting in this regard, because it is inexpensive and can reform itself with water to release hydrogen with a high gravimetric density of 18.8 per cent by weight. But traditional reforming of methanol steam operates at relatively high temperatures (200-350 degrees Celsius), so the focus for vehicle and portable PEMFC applications has been on aqueous-phase reforming of methanol (APRM). This method requires less energy, and the simpler and more compact device design allows direct integration into PEMFC stacks. There remains, however, the need for an efficient APRM catalyst. Here we report that platinum (Pt) atomically dispersed on α-molybdenum carbide (α-MoC) enables low-temperature (150-190 degrees Celsius), base-free hydrogen production through APRM, with an average turnover frequency reaching 18,046 moles of hydrogen per mole of platinum per hour. We attribute this exceptional hydrogen production-which far exceeds that of previously reported low-temperature APRM catalysts-to the outstanding ability of α-MoC to induce water dissociation, and to the fact that platinum and α-MoC act in synergy to activate methanol and then to reform it.

Low-temperature hydrogen production from water and methanol using Pt/α-MoC catalysts

Microorganisms produce a wealth of structurally diverse specialized metabolites with a remarkable range of biological activities and a wide variety of applications in medicine and agriculture, such as the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer, and the prevention of crop damage. Genomics has revealed that many microorganisms have far greater potential to produce specialized metabolites than was thought from classic bioactivity screens; however, realizing this potential has been hampered by the fact that many specialized metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are not expressed in laboratory cultures. In this Review, we discuss the strategies that have been developed in bacteria and fungi to identify and induce the expression of such silent BGCs, and we briefly summarize methods for the isolation and structural characterization of their metabolic products.

Discovery of microbial natural products by activation of silent biosynthetic gene clusters.

Recent developments in synthetic biology, combined with continued progress in systems biology and metabolic engineering, have enabled the engineering of microorganisms to produce heterologous molecules in a manner that was previously unfeasible. The successful synthesis and recent entry of semi-synthetic artemisinin into commercial production is the first demonstration of the potential of synthetic biology for the development and production of pharmaceutical agents. In this Review, we describe the metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches that were used to develop this important antimalarial drug precursor. This not only demonstrates the incredible potential of the available technologies but also illuminates how lessons learned from this work could be applied to the production of other pharmaceutical agents.

Semi-synthetic artemisinin: a model for the use of synthetic biology in pharmaceutical development

The review compiles artificial cascades involving enzymes with a focus on the last 10 years. A cascade is defined as the combination of at least two reaction steps in a single reaction vessel without isolation of the intermediates, whereby at least one step is catalyzed by an enzyme. Additionally, cascades performed in vivo and in vitro are discussed separately, whereby in vivo cascades are defined here as cascades relying on cofactor recycling by the metabolism or on a metabolite from the living organism. The review introduces a systematic classification of the cascades according to the number of enzymes in the linear sequence and differentiates between cascades involving exclusively enzymes and combinations of enzymes with non-natural catalysts or chemical steps. Since the number of examples involving two enzymes is predominant, the two enzyme cascades are further subdivided according to the number, order, and type of redox steps. Furthermore, this classification differentiates between cascades where al...

Artificial Biocatalytic Linear Cascades for Preparation of Organic Molecules

Polycyclic tetramate macrolactams (PTMs) are a widely distributed class of natural products with important biological activities. However, many of these PTMs have not been characterized. Here we apply a plug-and-play synthetic biology strategy to activate a cryptic PTM biosynthetic gene cluster SGR810-815 from Streptomyces griseus and discover three new PTMs. This gene cluster is highly conserved in phylogenetically diverse bacterial strains and contains an unusual hybrid polyketide synthase-nonribosomal peptide synthetase, which resembles iterative polyketide synthases known in fungi. To further characterize this gene cluster, we use the same synthetic biology approach to create a series of gene deletion constructs and elucidate the biosynthetic steps for the formation of the polycyclic system. The strategy we employ bypasses the traditional laborious processes to elicit gene cluster expression and should be generally applicable to many other silent or cryptic gene clusters for discovery and characterization of new natural products.

/pdf/activation-and-characterization-of-a-cryptic-polycyclic-42wbfci17b.pdf

Activation and characterization of a cryptic polycyclic tetramate macrolactam biosynthetic gene cluster

Although chemical and enzymatic catalysts have been combined, reactions in which an organometallic catalyst and a metalloenzyme work cooperatively to create products, which cannot be generated with either catalyst alone or in comparable yields by sequential reactions of the two catalysts, have not been reported. Such reactions are challenging to achieve, in part because the milieu in which these catalysts operate are typically different. Herein, two classes of catalysts are demonstrated to react cooperatively in the same system. Combination of a metathesis catalyst and a P450 enzyme lead to a dynamic equilibration of alkenes and a selective epoxidation of the cross-metathesis products. These results show the potential of combining the two classes of catalysts for synthetic transformations.

Cooperative Tandem Catalysis by an Organometallic Complex and a Metalloenzyme

We report the development of a tandem chemoenzymatic transformation that combines alkene metathesis with enzymatic epoxidation to provide aryl epoxides. The development of this one-pot reaction required substantial protein and reaction engineering to improve both selectivity and catalytic activity. Ultimately, this reaction converts a mixture of alkenes into a single epoxide product in high enantioselectivity and moderate yields and illustrates both the challenges and benefits of tandem catalysis combining organometallic and enzymatic systems.

Development of a One-Pot Tandem Reaction Combining Ruthenium-Catalyzed Alkene Metathesis and Enantioselective Enzymatic Oxidation To Produce Aryl Epoxides

A combination of a Hoveyda-type catalyst and a P450 enzyme reacts cooperatively in a one-pot process to promote a tandem reaction consisting of a metathesis/epoxidation sequence.

Cooperative Tandem Catalysis by an Organometallic Complex and a Metalloenzyme.

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Activation and characterization of a cryptic polycyclic tetramate macrolactam biosynthetic gene cluster

Cooperative Tandem Catalysis by an Organometallic Complex and a Metalloenzyme

Development of a One-Pot Tandem Reaction Combining Ruthenium-Catalyzed Alkene Metathesis and Enantioselective Enzymatic Oxidation To Produce Aryl Epoxides

Cooperative Tandem Catalysis by an Organometallic Complex and a Metalloenzyme.