Characterization of Highly Reductive Modification of Tetracycline D-Ring Reveals Enzymatic Conversion of Enone to Alkane

Tetracyclines are an eminent family of type II polyketides which possess a variety of decoration on the skeletons. However, apart from the oxidative modification in aureolic acid compounds, there are few cases on the further conversion of α, β-unsaturated ketones in the tetracycline D-ring. Here, we identified two reductases (TjhO5 and TjhD4) that highly reduced the α,β-unsaturated ketone of D-ring in the biosynthesis of unconventional tetracyclines. By identifying related intermediates and conducting isotope incorporation experiments, we demonstrated that the entire transformation could be accomplished by TjhO5 and TjhD4 collectively via two distinct pathways involving different enzymatic mechanisms. A distinctive deoxygenation mechanism was possibly involved in the TjhO5-mediated continuous reduction of C = O to CH2. These findings highlight the unprecedent post-modification of tetracyclines and facilitate further engineering to enrich the structural diversities.

Influence of light on particulate organic matter utilization by attached and free-living marine bacteria

While the impact of light on primary productivity in aquatic systems has been studied for decades, the role light plays in the degradation of photosynthetically-produced biomass is less well understood. We investigated the patterns of light-induced particle breakdown and bacterial assimilation of detrital C and N using13C and15N labeled freeze-thawed diatom cells incubated in laboratory microcosms with a marine microbial community freshly-collected from the Pacific Ocean. Particles incubated in the dark resulted in increased bacterial counts and dissolved organic carbon concentrations compared to those incubated in the light. Light also influenced the attached and free-living microbial community structure as detected by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. For example, bacterial taxa from the Sphingobacteriia were enriched on dark-incubated particles and taxa from the family Flavobacteriaceae and the genus Pseudoalteromonas were numerically enriched on particles in the light. Isotope incorporation analysis by phylogenetic microarray and NanoSIMS (a method called Chip-SIP) identified free-living and attached microbial taxa able to incorporate N and C from the particles. Some taxa, including members of the Flavobacteriaceae and Cryomorphaceae, exhibited increased isotope incorporation in the light, suggesting the use of photoheterotrophic metabolisms. In contrast, some members of Oceanospirillales and Rhodospirillales showed decreased isotope incorporation in the light, suggesting that their heterotrophic metabolism, particularly when occurring on particles, might increase at night or may be inhibited by sunlight. These results show that light influences particle degradation and C and N incorporation by attached bacteria, suggesting that the transfer between particulate and free-living phases are likely affected by external factors that change with the light regime, such as time of day, depth and season.

Using hydrogen isotope incorporation as a tool to unravel the surfaces of hydrogen-treated nanodiamonds

We report a robust method for the labelling of detonation nanodiamonds with hydrogen isotopes and demonstrate the usefulness of isotope incorporation in investigating the surface chemistry of such nanomaterials.