Browsing FAS Scholarly Articles by Author "Balskus, Emily"

Now showing items 1-20 of 25

    • Assembly line termination in cylindrocyclophane biosynthesis: discovery of an editing type II thioesterase domain in a type I polyketide synthase 

      Nakamura, Hitomi; Wang, J; Balskus, Emily Patricia (Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2015)
      The termination step is an important source of structural diversity in polyketide biosynthesis. Most type I polyketide synthase (PKS) assembly lines are terminated by a thioesterase (TE) domain located at the Cterminus of ...

    • A Biocompatible Alkene Hydrogenation Merges Organic Synthesis with Microbial Metabolism 

      Sirasani, Gopal; Tong, Liuchuan; Balskus, Emily Patricia (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)
      Organic chemists and metabolic engineers use largely orthogonal technologies to construct essential small molecules like pharmaceuticals and commodity chemicals. While chemists have leveraged the unique capabilities of ...

    • The biosynthesis of cyanobacterial sunscreen scytonemin in intertidal microbial mat communities 

      Balskus, Emily Patricia; Case, Rebecca J.; Walsh, Christopher T. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)
      We have examined the biosynthesis and accumulation of cyanobacterial sunscreening pigment scytonemin within intertidal microbial mat communities using a combination of chemical, molecular, and phylogenetic approaches. Both ...

    • Characterization and Detection of a Widely Distributed Gene Cluster That Predicts Anaerobic Choline Utilization by Human Gut Bacteria 

      Martínez-del Campo, Ana; Bodea, Smaranda; Hamer, Hilary A.; Marks, Jonathan A.; Haiser, Henry J.; Turnbaugh, Peter J.; Balskus, Emily P. (American Society of Microbiology, 2015)
      ABSTRACT Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the human gut microbiota’s effects on health and disease has been complicated by difficulties in linking metabolic functions associated with the gut community as ...

    • The Cremeomycin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Encodes a Pathway for Diazo Formation 

      Waldman, Abraham Joseph; Pechersky, Yakov; Wang, Peng; Wang, Jennifer X.; Balskus, Emily Patricia (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)
      Diazo groups are found in a range of natural products that possess potent biological activities. Despite longstanding interest in these metabolites, diazo group biosynthesis is not well understood, in part because of ...

    • Cylindrocyclophane Biosynthesis Involves Functionalization of an Unactivated Carbon Center 

      Nakamura, Hitomi; Hamer, Hilary Ann; Sirasani, Gopal; Balskus, Emily Patricia (American Chemical Society, 2012)
      The cylindrocyclophanes are a family of natural products that share a remarkable paracyclophane carbon scaffold. Using genome sequencing and bioinformatic analyses, we have discovered a biosynthetic gene cluster involved ...

    • Designer Micelles Accelerate Flux Through Engineered Metabolism in E. coli and Support Biocompatible Chemistry 

      Wallace, Stephen; Balskus, Emily (Wiley, 2016-04-08)
      Synthetic biology has enabled the production of many value-added chemicals via microbial fermentation. However, the problem of low product titers from recombinant pathways has limited the utility of this approach. Methods ...

    • An Enzymatic Cyclopentyl[b]indole Formation Involved in Scytonemin Biosynthesis 

      Balskus, Emily Patricia; Walsh, Christopher T. (American Chemical Society (ACS), 2009)
      Previous studies of the biosynthetic enzymes involved in the assembly of scytonemin (1), a cyanobacterial sunscreen, have identified β-ketoacid 2 as an important intermediate that is produced by ThDP-dependent enzyme ScyA. ...

    • The Genetic and Molecular Basis for Sunscreen Biosynthesis in Cyanobacteria 

      Balskus, Emily Patricia; Walsh, Christopher T. (American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2010)
      Ultraviolet UV-A and UV-B radiation is harmful to living systems, causing damage to biological macromolecules. An important strategy for dealing with UV exposure is the biosynthesis of small-molecule sunscreens. Among such ...

    • Gut bacterial phospholipase Ds support disease-associated metabolism by generating choline 

      Chittim, Carina; Martinez del Campo, Ana; Balskus, Emily (Springer Nature, 2018-11-19)

    • Interfacing Microbial Styrene Production with a Biocompatible Cyclopropanation Reaction 

      Wallace, Stephen; Balskus, Emily Patricia (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)
      Introducing new reactivity into living organisms is a major challenge in synthetic biology. Despite an increasing interest in both developing aqueous-compatible small molecule catalysts and engineering enzymes to perform ...

    • Investigating the Initial Steps in the Biosynthesis of Cyanobacterial Sunscreen Scytonemin 

      Balskus, Emily Patricia; Walsh, Christopher T. (American Chemical Society (ACS), 2008)
      The cyanobacterial natural product scytonemin (1) functions as a sunscreen, absorbing harmful UV-A radiation. Using information from a recently identified gene cluster, we propose a biosynthetic route to this pigment. We ...

    • Lomaiviticin Biosynthesis Employs a New Strategy for Starter Unit Generation 

      Waldman, Abraham Joseph; Balskus, Emily Patricia (American Chemical Society (ACS), 2014)
      Lomaiviticin biosynthesis is thought to utilize a propionyl starter unit for a type II polyketide synthase (PKS). Discovery of the lomaiviticin (lom) biosynthetic gene cluster suggested an unusual method for starter unit ...

    • Mechanistic insight into digoxin inactivation by Eggerthella lenta augments our understanding of its pharmacokinetics 

      Haiser, Henry J; Seim, Kristen L; Balskus, Emily P; Turnbaugh, Peter J (Landes Bioscience, 2014)
      The human gut microbiota plays a key role in pharmacology, yet the mechanisms responsible remain unclear, impeding efforts toward personalized medicine. We recently identified a cytochrome-encoding operon in the common gut ...

    • Microbial conversion of choline to trimethylamine requires a glycyl radical enzyme 

      Craciun, S.; Balskus, Emily Patricia (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012)
      Choline and trimethylamine (TMA) are small molecules that play central roles in biological processes throughout all kingdoms of life. These ubiquitous metabolites are linked through a single biochemical transformation, the ...

    • Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster 

      Medema, Marnix H; Kottmann, Renzo; Yilmaz, Pelin; Cummings, Matthew; Biggins, John B; Blin, Kai; de Bruijn, Irene; Chooi, Yit Heng; Claesen, Jan; Coates, R Cameron; Cruz-Morales, Pablo; Duddela, Srikanth; Düsterhus, Stephanie; Edwards, Daniel J; Fewer, David P; Garg, Neha; Geiger, Christoph; Gomez-Escribano, Juan Pablo; Greule, Anja; Hadjithomas, Michalis; Haines, Anthony S; Helfrich, Eric J N; Hillwig, Matthew L; Ishida, Keishi; Jones, Adam C; Jones, Carla S; Jungmann, Katrin; Kegler, Carsten; Kim, Hyun Uk; Kötter, Peter; Krug, Daniel; Masschelein, Joleen; Melnik, Alexey V; Mantovani, Simone M; Monroe, Emily A; Moore, Marcus; Moss, Nathan; Nützmann, Hans-Wilhelm; Pan, Guohui; Pati, Amrita; Petras, Daniel; Reen, F Jerry; Rosconi, Federico; Rui, Zhe; Tian, Zhenhua; Tobias, Nicholas J; Tsunematsu, Yuta; Wiemann, Philipp; Wyckoff, Elizabeth; Yan, Xiaohui; Yim, Grace; Yu, Fengan; Xie, Yunchang; Aigle, Bertrand; Apel, Alexander K; Balibar, Carl J; Balskus, Emily Patricia; Barona-Gómez, Francisco; Bechthold, Andreas; Bode, Helge B; Borriss, Rainer; Brady, Sean F; Brakhage, Axel A; Caffrey, Patrick; Cheng, Yi-Qiang; Clardy, Jon C.; Cox, Russell J; De Mot, René; Donadio, Stefano; Donia, Mohamed S; van der Donk, Wilfred A; Dorrestein, Pieter C; Doyle, Sean; Driessen, Arnold J M; Ehling-Schulz, Monika; Entian, Karl-Dieter; Fischbach, Michael A; Gerwick, Lena; Gerwick, William H; Gross, Harald; Gust, Bertolt; Hertweck, Christian; Höfte, Monica; Jensen, Susan E; Ju, Jianhua; Katz, Leonard; Kaysser, Leonard; Klassen, Jonathan L; Keller, Nancy P; Kormanec, Jan; Kuipers, Oscar P; Kuzuyama, Tomohisa; Kyrpides, Nikos C; Kwon, Hyung-Jin; Lautru, Sylvie; Lavigne, Rob; Lee, Chia Y; Linquan, Bai; Liu, Xinyu; Liu, Wen; Luzhetskyy, Andriy; Mahmud, Taifo; Mast, Yvonne; Méndez, Carmen; Metsä-Ketelä, Mikko; Micklefield, Jason; Mitchell, Douglas A; Moore, Bradley S; Moreira, Leonilde M; Müller, Rolf; Neilan, Brett A; Nett, Markus; Nielsen, Jens; O, Fergal; Oikawa, Hideaki; Osbourn, Anne; Osburne, Marcia S; Ostash, Bohdan; Payne, Shelley M; Pernodet, Jean-Luc; Petricek, Miroslav; Piel, Jörn; Ploux, Olivier; Raaijmakers, Jos M; Salas, José A; Schmitt, Esther K; Scott, Barry; Seipke, Ryan F; Shen, Ben; Sherman, David; Sivonen, Kaarina; Smanski, Michael J; Sosio, Margherita; Stegmann, Evi; Süssmuth, Roderich D; Tahlan, Kapil; Thomas, Christopher M; Tang, Yi; Truman, Andrew W; Viaud, Muriel; Walton, Jonathan D; Walsh, Christopher T.; Weber, Tilmann; van Wezel, Gilles P; Wilkinson, Barrie; Willey, Joanne M; Wohlleben, Wolfgang; Wright, Gerard D; Ziemert, Nadine; Zhang, Changsheng; Zotchev, Sergey B; Breitling, Rainer; Takano, Eriko; Glöckner, Frank Oliver (Springer Nature, 2015)
      A wide variety of enzymatic pathways that produce specialized metabolites in bacteria, fungi and plants are known to be encoded in biosynthetic gene clusters. Information about these clusters, pathways and metabolites is ...

    • An N-nitrosating metalloenzyme constructs the pharmacophore of streptozotocin 

      Ng, Tai L.; Rohac, Roman; Mitchell, Andrew J.; Boal, Amie K.; Balskus, Emily P.; Balskus, Emily (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2019-02)
      N-nitroso-containing small molecules, such as the bacterial natural product streptozotocin, are prominent carcinogens as well as important cancer chemotherapeutics. Despite this functional group’s significant impact on ...

    • Predicting and Manipulating Cardiac Drug Inactivation by the Human Gut Bacterium Eggerthella lenta 

      Haiser, Henry J.; Gootenberg, David Benjamin; Chatman, Kelly; Sirasani, Gopal; Balskus, Emily Patricia; Turnbaugh, Peter (American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2013)
      Despite numerous examples of the effects of the human gastrointestinal microbiome on drug efficacy and toxicity, there is often an incomplete understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Here, we dissect the inactivation ...

    • Production of Stealthin C Involves an S–N-Type Smiles Rearrangement 

      Wang, Peng; Hong, Gloria J.; Wilson, Matthew Ryan; Balskus, Emily Patricia (American Chemical Society (ACS), 2017)
      The kinamycin family of aromatic polyketide natural products contains an atypical angucycline ring system substituted with a diazo group. The enzymatic chemistry involved in constructing both of these structural features ...

    • Rescuing Auxotrophic Microorganisms with Nonenzymatic Chemistry 

      Lee, Yunmi; Umeano, Afoma; Balskus, Emily Patricia (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)
      Organic chemistry to the rescue: Two unrelated nonenzymatic chemical reactions can support the growth of auxotrophic E. coli strains by generating essential nutrients in situ. These biocompatible reactions, which take place ...