EVISA Print | Glossary on | Contact EVISA | Sitemap | Home   
 Advanced search
The establishment of EVISA is funded by the EU through the Fifth Framework Programme (G7RT- CT- 2002- 05112).


Supporters of EVISA includes:

Selenium May Play a More Important Role in Microbes Than Previously Thought

(28.09.2022)


In a paper published September 7th in Nature, the researchers reveal a novel and widespread pathway for selenium insertion that involves two unusual selenium-carbon forming enzymes. The authors named them selenosugar synthase (SenB) and selenoneine synthase (SenA).

Their work expands the known boundaries of selenium metabolism, previously thought to be confined to selenoproteins and selenonucleic acid biopolymers, which consist of primary metabolites.

The research also strongly suggests that selenium, an essential trace element across all kingdoms of life, may have a more important biological role in bacteria than scientists originally assumed.

The lab’s paper, “Biosynthesis of selenium-containing small molecules in diverse microorganisms,” was authored by Chase Kayrouz, a fourth-year graduate student in the lab; postdocs Jonathan Huang and Nicole Hauser; and Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, professor in the Department of Chemistry.

“This was kind of a closed field. Nobody had found a new pathway in selenium metabolism in 20 years,” said Kayrouz. “The biosynthesis of selenoproteins and selenonucleic acids were elucidated in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And since then, people kind of assumed that these are the only things microbes do with selenium. We simply wondered whether they might incorporate selenium into other small molecules? Turns out, they do.”

Said Seyedsayamdost: “Our work shows that nature has indeed evolved pathways to incorporate this element into small molecules, sugars, and secondary metabolites. Selenium has remarkable properties that are distinct from those of any other element found in biomolecules. Incorporation of selenium into selenoneine, for example, makes it a much better antioxidant than the sulfur version of the molecule. But while sulfur is ubiquitous in biomolecules, the occurrence of selenium is much rarer and was thought to be limited to biopolymers.

“Nature has evolved specific mechanisms for incorporating either sulfur or selenium into natural products, thereby taking advantage of the unique properties of both elements through pathways that are specific to each.”

 
Looking for selenium

The Mo lab started their investigation under the assumption that selenium atoms should exist in natural products because of their utilization ubiquity elsewhere. They asked, what would such a signature look like in microbial genomes?

“How do you actually see where a new drug or natural product or selenium metabolite is, how do you find it?” said Kayrouz. “We typically look for biosynthetic gene clusters – groups of genes on the chromosome that code for the biosynthesis of such molecules. So, if we have a pathway to make a selenium-containing compound, it has to be encoded by genes.”

They implemented a genome mining strategy in search of genes that are found next to selD, which encodes the first step in all known selenium processes inside the cell.

Fairly quickly, they found one gene that was co-localized with selD—called senB—that caught their attention, particularly because it has not before been implicated in selenium metabolism.

Further examination uncovered a third co-localized gene, called SenA. Kayrouz hypothesized that these three genes may be involved in a new selenium biosynthetic pathway.

“First, we defined what a biosynthetic gene cluster that incorporates selenium would look like,” said Seyedsayamdost. “We then used bioinformatics to look for such genes and identified what we now call the 'sen cluster' in diverse microbial genomes.”

They were able to express each of these new genes in Escherichia coli, thus assembling the entire pathway in a test tube. This revealed production of two selenium-containing small molecules – a selenosugar and a molecule called selenoneine. It also revealed two enzymes that form carbon-selenium bonds, the first such enzymes to act on biological small molecules.

“The microbes are putting selenium into these compounds for a reason, so there must be some interesting bioactivity associated with them,” said Kayrouz. “We don’t know what that is yet, but it is extremely exciting. As biological chemists, discoveries like this are what we wake up for every day.”



Source: This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content.




The original study

Chase Kayrouz, Jonathan Huang, Nicole Hauser, and Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, Biosynthesis of selenium-containing small molecules in diverse microorganisms, Nature, 610 (2022) 199-204. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05174-2



Related studies (newest first)

H.J. Reich, R.J. Hondal, Why nature chose selenium. ACS Chem. Biol. 11 (2016) 821–841. DOI:  10.1021/acschembio.6b00031

V.M. Labunsky, D.L. Hatfield, V.N. Gladyshev, Selenoproteins: Molecular Pathways and Physiological Roles, Physiol. Rev., 94 (2014) 739-777. DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00039.2013

C.M. Weekley, H.H. Harris, Which form is that? The importance of selenium speciation and metabolism in the prevention and treatment of disease. Chem. Soc. Rev. 42 (2013) 8870–8894. DOI: 10.1039/c3cs60272a

Y. Yamashita, M. Yamashita, Identification of a novel selenium-containing compound, selenoneine, as the predominant chemical form of organic selenium in the blood of bluefin tuna. J. Biol. Chem. 285 (2010) 18134–18138. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.C110.106377

Liangwei Zhong, Arne Holmgren, Essential Role of Selenium in the Catalytic Activities of Mammalian Thioredoxin Reductase Revealed by Characterization of Recombinant Enzymes with Selenocysteine Mutations, J. Biol. Chem., 275/24 (2000) 18121-18128. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M000690200

J.T. Rotruck, A.L. Pope, H.E. Ganther, A.B. Swanson, D.G. Hafeman, W.G. Hoekstra, Selenium: biochemical role as a component of glutathione peroxidase. Science 179 (1973) 588–590. DOI: 10.1126/science.179.4073.588.



Related EVISA Resources






Comments






Imprint     Disclaimer

© 2003 - 2024 by European Virtual Institute for Speciation Analysis ( EVISA )