Interrogation of Benzomalvin Biosynthesis Using Fungal Artificial Chromosomes with Metabolomic Scoring (FAC-MS): Discovery of a Benzodiazepine Synthase Activity

Abstract

The benzodiazepine benzomalvin A/D is a fungally derived specialized metabolite and inhibitor of the substance P receptor NK1, biosynthesized by a three-gene nonribosomal peptide synthetase cluster. Here, we utilize fungal artificial chromosomes with metabolomic scoring (FAC-MS) to perform molecular genetic pathway dissection and targeted metabolomics analysis to assign the in vivo role of each domain in the benzomalvin biosynthetic pathway. The use of FAC-MS identified the terminal cyclizing condensation domain as BenY-C_T and the internal C-domains as BenZ-C₁ and BenZ-C₂. Unexpectedly, we also uncovered evidence suggesting BenY-C_T or a yet to be identified protein mediates benzodiazepine formation, representing the first reported benzodiazepine synthase enzymatic activity. This work informs understanding of what defines a fungal C_T domain and shows how the FAC-MS platform can be used as a tool for in vivo analyses of specialized metabolite biosynthesis and for the discovery and dissection of new enzyme activities.