Deazapurine Amide-Bond Synthetases: a New Family of Amide-Bond-Forming Enzymes Driving the Diversity of Peptidyl Deazapurine Natural Products

Amide bond-forming enzymes play a crucial role in generating structural diversity in natural products by assembling them from relatively simple precursors. Two distinct types of standalone amid-bond-forming enzymes are commonly involved in natural product biosynthesis, including ATP-grasp enzymes and amide bond synthetases. Here, we report a new family of amide bond synthetases that catalyze amide bond formation between deazapurine as the sole carboxylic acid substrate and various amine substrates, which we have designated as deazapurine amide bond synthetases (DABS). This evolutionarily related enzyme family plays a central role in diversifying the structures of peptidyl deazapurine natural products. Our gene mining analysis reveals that most DABS-associated biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) remain cryptic. Therefore, systematic characterization of these cryptic BGCs holds great potential for discovering novel peptidyl deazapurine natural products with diverse biological activities.