Rapid Unambiguous Structure Elucidation of Streptnatamide A, a New Cyclic Peptide Isolated from A Marine-derived Streptomyces sp

Abstract

Cyclic peptides have been excellent source of drug leads. With the advances in discovery platforms, the pharmaceutical industry has a growing interest in cyclic peptides and has pushed several into clinical trials. However, structural complexity of cyclic peptides brings extreme challenges for structure elucidation efforts. Isotopic fine structure analysis, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and detailed tandem mass spectrometry rapidly provided peptide sequence for streptnatamide A, a cyclic peptide isolated from a marine-derived Streptomyces sp. Marfey's analysis determined the stereochemistry of all amino acids, enabling the unambiguous structure determination of this compound. A non-ribosomal peptide synthetase biosynthetic gene cluster (stp) was tentatively identified and annotated for streptnatamide A based on the in silico analysis of whole genome sequencing data. These analytical tools will be powerful tools to overcome the challenges for cyclic peptide structure elucidation and accelerate the development of bioactive cyclic peptides.

Keywords: NRPS biosynthesis; cyclic peptides; isotopic fine structure; structure elucidation; tandem mass spectrometry.