Comparative studies on similarities and differences of cyclodipeptide oxidases for installation of C–C double bonds at the diketopiperazine ring

Cyclodipeptide oxidases (CDOs) perform dehydrogenations on diketopiperazines and play an important role in the cyclodipeptide diversification. In this study, we investigated the two known CDOs AlbA/B and Ndas_1146/7 and one new member, CDO-Np. LC-MS monitoring of 32 cyclodipeptide biotransformations in E. coli revealed good consumption of cyclodipeptides containing aromatic amino acids. Cyclodipeptides consisting solely of aliphatic amino acids were poor substrates. In vitro assays of 34 substrates with crude enzyme extracts and product identification proved that the CDO-Np-containing extract catalyzes the formation of two C–C double bonds in many cases. The extracts containing the two other enzymes had lower activities and catalyzed mainly didehydrogenations. For didehydrogenation, the phenylalanyl or tyrosyl site was usually preferred. No or very low acceptance of benzodiazepinediones and a 2,6-diketopiperazine proved the importance of the 2,5-diketopiperazine ring. N-Methylation at the diketopiperazine ring or prenylation of the tryptophan-containing cyclodipeptides influences the enzyme activity and product spectrum. Key points • Comparison of catalytic activities of three enzymes; Diverse cyclodipeptides and derivatives as substrates; Determination of double bond formation using 2 H-labeled substrates; Product identification also by interpretation of MS 2 fragmentation pattern.