Irregular terpenes: A new biosynthetic pathway expands the terpene portfolio in bacteria

Abstract

The biosyntheses of sodorifen and chlororaphen demonstrate impressively that in bacteria an additional way of terpene biosynthesis was established which results in the production of new – so far unknown – natural terpene products. For these biosynthetic pathways, especially the properties of two specialized enzymes are responsible. This is on the one hand a bifunctional SAM-dependent FPP-methyltransferase with cyclase activity and on the other hand a terpene synthase with altered substrate specificity. Thus, it has been documented that – deviating from the C₅ unit-depending isoprene rule – there is another possibility of modifying classical prenyl pyrophosphates to C₁₆ or C₁₇ cyclized substrates. Subsequently, the 136-year-old isoprene dogma has to be expanded or modified.