Diterpene production in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Diterpenes are a structurally diverse class of molecules common in plants, although they are very rarely found in bacteria. We report the identification in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) of three diterpenes proposed to promote phagolysosome maturation arrest. MS analysis reveals that these diterpenes are novel compounds not previously identified in other organisms. The diterpene with highest abundance in Mtb has a mass fragmentation pattern identical to edaxadiene, which is produced in vitro from geranylgeranyl diphosphate by the enzymes Rv3377c and Rv3378c. A second diterpene found in Mtb has a similar mass spectrum, and is always observed in the same proportion relative to edaxadiene, indicating that it is a side product of the Rv3378c reaction in vivo. We name this second diterpene olefin edaxadiene B. The least abundant of the three diterpenes in Mtb extracts is tuberculosinol, a dephosphorylated side-product of the edaxadiene pathway intermediate produced by Rv3377c. A frameshift in Rv3377c in Mtb completely eliminates diterpene production, whereas expression of Rv3377c and Rv3378c in the nonpathogenic M. smegmatis is sufficient to produce edaxadiene and edaxadiene B. These studies define the pathway of edaxadiene and edaxadiene B biosynthesis in vivo. Rv3377c and Rv3378c are unique to Mtb and M. bovis, making them candidates for selective therapeutics and diagnostics.