Tryptophan Chemistry Driven by a Widespread Cytochrome P422 Enzyme Family

Abstract

Tryptophan serves as a versatile biosynthetic precursor across living organisms. While heme-binding proteins (HBPs) mediate key reactions in tryptophan transformation, the full diversity of HBPs remains largely unexplored. Here, we developed the novel Cofactor-Integrative Structural Inspector (CISSspector) to systematically identify HBPs in the extensive extant microbial genomic sequence database, which revealed several uncharacterized HBP families. We experimentally characterized one of the most prominent families, the cytochrome P422 (formerly DUF6875) family, distributed throughout the prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Strikingly, we discovered that this enzyme family orchestrates four chemically distinct and biochemically unprecedented transformations, with regioselectivity, including N1-, C6-, and C7-hydroxylations and intramolecular C-S bond formations. Notably, the discovery of enzymes capable of Trp N1- and C7-hydroxylation addresses a long-standing gap in the natural enzyme arsenal. Structural analysis of the representative cytochrome P422 enzyme Mc170 revealed a structurally unique HBP fold in which conserved residues form a substrate "clamp" that positions the tryptophan indole ring for selective modification. Our work unveils a hidden enzymatic repertoire of HBPs, expands the known landscape of tryptophan metabolism, and establishes an artificial intelligence-augmented framework for discovering cryptic enzymes with broad implications for synthetic biology and natural product discovery.