Crystallization and preliminary X-ray studies on the putative dTDP sugar epimerase NovW from the novobiocin biosynthetic cluster of Streptomyces spheroides.

Crystals of recombinant NovW (subunit MW = 22 289 Da), a putative dTDP sugar epimerase from Streptomyces spheroides, were grown by vapour diffusion. The protein crystallizes in space group P4(3)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 59.20, c = 109.23 A. Native data to a resolution of 2.0 A were collected from a single crystal at 100 K on a rotating-anode X-ray generator. Preliminary analysis of these data indicated that the asymmetric unit corresponded to a monomer, whilst dynamic light scattering (DLS) suggested that NovW was a dimer in solution. NovW is involved in the biosynthesis of the aminocoumarin antibiotic novobiocin, which targets the bacterial enzyme DNA gyrase, and represents the first enzyme to be crystallized from this biosynthetic pathway.