Abstract
Isoprenoids are ubiquitous compounds found in all living organisms. In spite of their remarkable diversity of structures and functions, all isoprenoids derive from a basic five-carbon precursor unit, isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP), and its isomer dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP). Addition of IPP units to DMAPP, catalyzed by prenyltransferases, results in the synthesis of prenyl diphosphates of increasing length which are the starting points of downstream pathways leading to the synthesis of the different isoprenoid end products. For many years, it was accepted that IPP was synthesized from acetyl-CoA through the well-known mevalonate (MVA) pathway. However, an alternative MVA-independent pathway for the biosynthesis of IPP and DMAPP was identified a few years ago in bacteria, algae, and plants. This novel pathway, currently known as the methylerythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, is widely distributed in nature and is present in most eubacteria. Here, we describe the biological relevance of the main isoprenoid compounds found in prokaryotic organisms and the metabolic origin of the IPP and DMAPP used for their synthesis, with a particular emphasis on those isoprenoids present in the model bacteria Escherichia coli. Since the MEP pathway is essential in most pathogenic bacteria but is absent in animals (including humans), which synthesize isoprenoids through the MVA pathway, we also describe the recent and increasing interest of the MEP pathway enzymes as targets for the development of new antibiotics.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the collaboration of Marçal Gallemí in the preparation of the figures. Work from our groups was mainly supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) BIO2006-03704 and BIO2009-09523 to A.B. and BIO2011-23680 to M.R.C., all including FEDER funds, and the Generalitat de Catalunya (GC) grant 2009SGR-26. Our work was carried out within the Centre CONSOLIDER on Agrigenomics (funded by MICINN) and Xarxa de Referencia en Biotecnologia (funded by GC).
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Rodríguez-Concepción, M., Boronat, A. (2012). Isoprenoid Biosynthesis in Prokaryotic Organisms. In: Bach, T., Rohmer, M. (eds) Isoprenoid Synthesis in Plants and Microorganisms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4063-5_1
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