Exploiting cyanobacterial P450 pathways.

Cytochrome P450s are hemoprotein oxygenases involved in natural product synthetic pathways. Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms and are considered a rich source of natural products, and are now known to harbour P450s. A variety of cyanobacterial species have been found to contain multiple copies of P450s in their genomes, and over 100 have been predicted. Interestingly, some are membrane-bound as in eukaryotes, as opposed to cytoplasmic in bacteria. Furthermore, they can complement plant P450s and perform bioremediation of oil spills by the breakdown of alkanes. Functional expression of a selection Nostoc spp. P450s in Escherichia coli, with associated enzymes, has successfully produced the sesquiterpenes--germacradienol, germacrene and B-elemene, although others have failed for undetermined reasons.