Discovery of Pyranoviolin A and Its Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Aspergillus violaceofuscus

Xingxing Wei; Lin Chen; Jian-Wei Tang; Yudai Matsuda

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.562063

Discovery of Pyranoviolin A and Its Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Aspergillus violaceofuscus

Front Microbiol. 2020 Oct 7:11:562063. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.562063. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Xingxing Wei¹, Lin Chen¹, Jian-Wei Tang², Yudai Matsuda^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
² Department of Ocean Science and Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
³ City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

A new polyketide-non-ribosomal peptide hybrid molecule, pyranoviolin A (1), was discovered from the genome-sequenced fungus Aspergillus violaceofuscus CBS 115571 and was characterized to be the first pyranonigrin analog harboring the C-3 methoxy group. Examination of the genome sequence of the fungus identified a putative biosynthetic gene cluster of 1, which was designated as the pyv cluster. The gene deletion experiment of the polyketide synthase (PKS)-non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) hybrid gene in the cluster confirmed the involvement of the pyv cluster in the pyranoviolin A biosynthesis. Finally, a plausible biosynthetic route leading to 1 has been proposed based on the bioinformatic analysis. Our study indicates that metabolite analysis of genome-sequenced microorganisms whose metabolites have been largely unexplored facilitates the discovery of new secondary metabolites along with their biosynthetic gene clusters.

Keywords: Aspergillus violaceofuscus; biosynthesis; fungal secondary metabolites; natural products; polyketide-non-ribosomal peptides.