Dioxygenases, key enzymes to determine the aglycon structures of fusicoccin and brassicicene, diterpene compounds produced by fungi.

Fusicoccin A and cotylenin A are structurally related diterpene glucosides and show a phytohormone-like activity. However, only cotylenin A induces the differentiation of human myeloid leukemia cells. Since the cotylenin A producer lost its ability to proliferate during preservation, a study on the relationship between structure and activity was carried out and a modified fusicoccin A with hydroxyl group at the 3-position showed a similar biological activity with that of cotylenin A. We then searched for an enzyme source that catalyzes the introduction of a hydroxyl group into the 3-position and found that brassicicene C, which is structurally related to fusicoccin A with hydroxyl group at the 3-position, was produced by Alternaria brassicicola ATCC96836. We recently cloned a brassicicene C biosynthetic gene cluster including the genes encoding fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene synthase and two cytochrome P450s, which were responsible for the formation of fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene-8β,16-diol. In this study, we report that a α-ketoglutarate dependent dioxygenase, the gene coding for which was located in the cluster, catalyzed a hydroxylation at the 3-position of fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene-8β,16-diol. On the other hand, a α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, which had been identified in a fusicoccin A biosynthetic gene cluster, catalyzed the 16-oxidation of fusicocca-2,10(14)-diene-8β,16-diol to yield an aldehyde (8β-hydroxyfusicocca-1,10(14)-dien-16-al), although both dioxygenases had 51% amino acid sequence identity. These findings suggested that the dioxygenases played critical roles for the formation of the fusicoccin A-type and cotylenin A-/brassicicene C-type aglycons. Moreover, we showed that short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase located in the fusicoccin A biosynthetic gene cluster catalyzed the reduction of the aldehyde to yield fusicocca-1,10(14)-diene-8β,16-diol.