Flavin-Dependent Monooxygenase-Mediated 1,2-Oxazine Construction via Meisenheimer Rearrangement in the Biosynthesis of Paeciloxazine

J Am Chem Soc. 2022 Mar 9;144(9):4269-4276. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c00881. Epub 2022 Feb 22.

Abstract

The [1,2]-Meisenheimer rearrangement is well known as the [1,2]-migration of an O-substituted hydroxylamine from a tertiary amine N-oxide, and it is frequently employed in organic synthesis to enforce adjacent carbon oxidation or install a 1,2-oxazine core, which is a prevalent structural feature and pharmacophore of many bioactive natural products. Although the [1,2]-Meisenheimer rearrangement was proposed to occur in the biosynthesis of a number of 1,2-oxazine-containing natural products, it has never been proved biosynthetically. Here, we identified the biosynthetic gene cluster of an insecticidal natural product, paeciloxazine (1), from Penicillium janthinellum and characterized a flavin-dependent monooxygenase, PaxA, as the first example that mediates the formation of a 1,2-oxazine moiety via Meisenheimer rearrangement. In vitro biochemical assays, site-directed mutations, docking and molecular dynamics simulations, and density functional theory calculations support the mechanism that PaxA first catalyzes N-oxidation to form an N-oxide intermediate, which undergoes [1,2]-Meisenheimer rearrangement with the assistance of an amino acid with proton transfer property. This study expands the repertoire of rearrangement reactions during the biosynthesis of natural products and provides a new strategy for discovering natural products with N-O tethers by genome mining.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biological Products*
  • Dinitrocresols
  • Flavins / metabolism
  • Mixed Function Oxygenases* / chemistry
  • Organic Chemicals
  • Oxazines
  • Oxides

Substances

  • Biological Products
  • Dinitrocresols
  • Flavins
  • Organic Chemicals
  • Oxazines
  • Oxides
  • paeciloxazine
  • 4,6-dinitro-o-cresol
  • Mixed Function Oxygenases