I would like to check out the presence of pathways of the biosynthesis of such pigments as scytonemin and gloeocapsin in genomes of some cyanobacteria.
Please suggest me the names of genes or proteins involved in the biosynthesis of either scytonemin or gloeocapsin.
Thank you. Igor Brown
I cannot find the structure of gloeocapsin, but scytonemin is often mentioned along with gloeocapsin.
"Molecular Genetics and Genomic Analysis of Scytonemin Biosynthesis in Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133" (http://jb.asm.org/content/189/12/4465.abstract) was the first publication that outlined the biosynthesis of scytonemin. "The biosynthesis of cyanobacterial sunscreen scytonemin in intertidal microbial mat communities" (http://femsec.oxfordjournals.org/content/77/2/322.long#ref-36) summarizes the proposed biosynthesis of scytonemin which proceeds through tryptophan and phenylalanine using the enaymes ScyA, ScyB and ScyC. An enzyme responsible for the dimerization of two modified Try-Trp monomers is not identified.
Hi Carter: Thank you for the tip. I have ran BLAST of different protein >gi|223414376|gb|ACM89406.1| putative scytonemin biosynthesis protein, partial [Chlorogloeopsis sp. Cgs-089]. Obtained result showed no the absence of homologs in any representative of Gloeocapsa genus. I guess there might be significant difference between biosynthetic pathways of both UV screens. Any different suggestions? IB
A comparative genomics approach to understanding the biosynthesis of the sunscreen scytonemin in cyanobacteria (BMC Genomics 2009, 10:336 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-336). This publication states that they found the scytonemin biosynthetic cluster in the genome you blasted above. They stated that the biosynthetic operons are highly conserved between 4 cyanobacterial genomes. I submitted the Chlorogloeopsis sp. Cgs-089 entire genome to AntiSmash, but the results have yet to come back.
I highly recommend using AntiSmash for bioinformatics on biosynthetic clusters. http://antismash.secondarymetabolites.org/ When submitting a genome, make sure that the entire genome is included in the search. You don't want to Smash a single contig or a single protein on accident.
Thanks for now. I will be waiting a result of your search with great interest. Keep in touch. IB
Hi Igor,
http://antismash.secondarymetabolites.org/upload/b9a7440a-8945-4e75-8c0f-67c3a699f85b/index.html#
There is the link to the AntiSmash results of cyanobacteria genome NZ_AJLN01000001.1, which is Chlorogloeopsis fritschii PCC 6912 (as I could not find the whole genome of the species you referenced in the original post). AntiSmash predicted 21 operons that include bacteriocin, NRPS, PKS, hybrid, terpene, etc types. Since I have no clue as to the structure of gloeocapsin I cannot begin to deconvolute which of these operons (if any) are responsible for the compound of interest.
I can tell you that operon 20 is most likely a microcystin derivative, and that clusters 1, 3, 8, 12, and 17 cannot be responsible for the pigments you are interested in. Assuming that the dipeptide scytonemin and gloeocapsin are structurally similar, I would suggest that clusters 4 and 7 are potential biosynthetic operons (especially 7).
If you can find the whole genome accession number for the species that you are interested in and submit to AntiSmash, I would be happy to look over the results and suggest potential operons. Otherwise, this is all I got at the moment.
Hi Carter:
Thank you very much for your update. It sounds very interesting. I will try to fetch gloeocapsin structure from a colleague of mine.Best regards. IB
- Badges
- Science topic