Genome Mining and Metabolomics Uncover a Rare d-Capreomycidine Containing Natural Product and Its Biosynthetic Gene Cluster

We report the metabolomics-driven genome mining of a new cyclic-guanidino incorporating non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene cluster and full structure elucidation of its associated hexapeptide product, faulknamycin. Structural studies unveiled that this natural product contained the previously unknown (R,S)-stereoisomer of capreomycidine, d-capreomycidine. Furthermore, heterologous expression of the identified gene cluster successfully reproduces faulknamycin production without an observed homologue of VioD, the pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme found in all previous l-capreomycidine biosynthesis. An alternative NRPS-dependent pathway for d-capreomycidine biosynthesis is proposed.