Mechanistic and Structural Insights into a Divergent PLP-Dependent l-Enduracididine Cyclase from a Toxic Cyanobacterium.

Cyclic arginine noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) are found in several actinobacterial peptide natural products with therapeutically useful antibacterial properties. The preparation of ncAAs like enduracididine and capreomycidine currently takes multiple biosynthetic or chemosynthetic steps, thus limiting the commercial availability and applicability of these cyclic guanidine-containing amino acids. We recently discovered and characterized the biosynthetic pathway of guanitoxin, a potent freshwater cyanobacterial neurotoxin, that contains an arginine-derived cyclic guanidine phosphate within its highly polar structure.

Mechanistic and structural insights into a divergent PLP-dependent L-enduracididine cyclase from a toxic cyanobacterium.

Cyclic arginine noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) are found in several actinobacterial peptide natural products with therapeutically useful antibacterial properties. The preparation of ncAAs like enduracididine and capreomycidine currently takes multiple biosynthetic or chemosynthetic steps, thus limiting the commercial availability and applicability of these cyclic guanidine-containing amino acids. We recently discovered and characterized the biosynthetic pathway of guanitoxin, a potent freshwater cya-nobacterial neurotoxin, that contains an arginine-derived cyclic guanidine phosphate within its highly polar structure.