Nie Yan-Fang, Yue Sheng-Jie, Huang Peng, Zhang Xue-Hong, Hao Xiang-Rui, Jiang Lian, Hu Hong-Bo
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, and School of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
National Experimental Teaching Center for Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Microb Biotechnol. 2025 Jun;18(6):e70186. doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.70186.
Phenazines are bioactive secondary metabolites with antifungal, anticancer, and insecticidal properties, while hydroxylated derivatives often exhibit enhanced bioactivity. 2-hydroxyphenazine (2-OH-PHZ), which is synthesised by the flavin-dependent monooxygenase PhzO from phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA), shows better bioactivity against the pathogenic fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis vars. tritici. However, the low catalytic efficiency (10%-20% conversion) of PhzO limited 2-OH-PHZ production. To boost PhzO activity, engineering flavin reductase (Fre)-mediated FADH regeneration was applied to Pseudomonas chlororaphis LX24AE. Remarkably, this approach improved catalytic efficiency from 25% to 40% and increased the production of a novel dihydroxylated derivative. Then, it was first characterised by UPLC-MS and NMR, and identified as 3,4-dihydroxyphenazine-1-carboxylic acid (3,4-OH-PCA). Next, the Fre-PhzO module through heterologous co-expression in P. putida KT2440 demonstrated a 4.5-fold enhancement in hydroxylation efficiency relative to the PhzO mono-component system, which also confirmed that PhzO and flavin reductase are essential for 3,4-OH-PCA biosynthesis. Moreover, in vitro assays further verified that PhzO exhibits FAD-dependent catalytic promiscuity, simultaneously generating 2-OH-PCA and 3,4-OH-PCA. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo assays demonstrated that substrate concentration affected the distribution of products. Finally, cytotoxicity evaluation of the isolated 3,4-OH-PCA was performed, and it showed substantial inhibition against oesophageal cancer TE-1 cells and human cervical cancer HeLa cells with an IC value of 8.55 μM and 17.69 μM, respectively. This work redefines PhzO as a promiscuous biocatalyst capable of dual hydroxylation, offering a modular platform for engineering bioactive phenazine derivatives.
吩嗪是具有抗真菌、抗癌和杀虫特性的生物活性次级代谢产物,而羟基化衍生物通常表现出增强的生物活性。由黄素依赖性单加氧酶PhzO从吩嗪-1-羧酸(PCA)合成的2-羟基吩嗪(2-OH-PHZ),对致病真菌禾顶囊壳小麦变种表现出更好的生物活性。然而,PhzO的低催化效率(10%-20%转化率)限制了2-OH-PHZ的产量。为了提高PhzO的活性,将工程化黄素还原酶(Fre)介导的FADH再生应用于绿针假单胞菌LX24AE。值得注意的是,这种方法将催化效率从25%提高到40%,并增加了一种新型二羟基化衍生物的产量。然后,它首先通过超高效液相色谱-质谱联用仪(UPLC-MS)和核磁共振(NMR)进行表征,并被鉴定为3,4-二羟基吩嗪-1-羧酸(3,4-OH-PCA)。接下来,通过在恶臭假单胞菌KT2440中异源共表达的Fre-PhzO模块相对于PhzO单组分系统表现出4.5倍的羟基化效率提高,这也证实了PhzO和黄素还原酶对3,4-OH-PCA生物合成至关重要。此外,体外试验进一步证实PhzO表现出FAD依赖性催化多效性,同时生成2-OH-PCA和3,4-OH-PCA。此外,体外和体内试验表明底物浓度影响产物分布。最后,对分离出的3,4-OH-PCA进行了细胞毒性评估,结果表明它对食管癌TE-1细胞和人宫颈癌HeLa细胞具有显著抑制作用,IC值分别为8.55 μM和17.69 μM。这项工作将PhzO重新定义为一种能够进行双羟基化的多效性生物催化剂,为工程化生物活性吩嗪衍生物提供了一个模块化平台。