Citation: Botao Yan, Hongran Chen, Zixin Deng, Mingguo Jiang, Min Xu, Anwei Hou. Functional analysis of a diterpene synthase for jiangxidienes and jiangxienols biosynthesis from Streptacidiphilus jiangxiensis[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(9): 112790. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2026.112790 shu

Functional analysis of a diterpene synthase for jiangxidienes and jiangxienols biosynthesis from Streptacidiphilus jiangxiensis

Botao Yan ^{a, c} ,
Hongran Chen ^b ,
Zixin Deng ^{a, b} ,
Mingguo Jiang ^{c, *,} ,
Min Xu ^{a, *,} ,
Anwei Hou ^{a, *,}

a.
Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, China
b.
Haihe Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin 300308, China
c.
Guangxi–Indonesia Joint Laboratory for Intelligent Exploration of Microbial Resources, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Polysaccharide Materials and Modification, School of Marine Sciences and Biotechnology, Guangxi Minzu University, Nanning 530008, China

mzxyjiang@163.com

xumin@tib.cas.cn

anwei.hou@tib.cas.cn

Received Date: 23 December 2025
Revised Date: 15 April 2026
Accepted Date: 16 April 2026
Available Online: 21 April 2026

Figures(6)

This study identifies and characterises a previously unknown diterpene synthase, SjJS, from the acidophilic actinomycete Streptacidiphilus jiangxiensis. Genome mining and heterologous expression demonstrated that Streptacidiphilus jiangxiensis Jiangxidiene Synthase (SjJS) accepts both farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) and geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) as substrates to produce a diverse terpene profile, including two new diterpenes, jiangxidiene A (1) and B (2). Comprehensive ¹³C-labelling experiments combined with computational analyses delineated its intricate cyclisation mechanism and revealed two possible pathways. Structure-guided mutagenesis enabled the accumulation of key intermediate-derived products, jiangxienols A–D (4, 7, 8, and 10), thereby allowing a clear differentiation between the two proposed cyclisation pathways and leading to the formation of several additional diterpenes. In addition, a cytochrome P450 encoded adjacent to the sjjs gene was shown to oxidise jiangxidiene A (1), the major diterpene product, yielding jiangxienoide B (12) and jiangxienol E (13). Further cytotoxicity assays were performed for the isolated compounds, among which jiangxidiene A (1) gave the lowest half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) values (15–20 µg/mL) against the tested human cancer cell lines.
- Streptacidiphilus,
- Diterpene,
- Terpene synthase,
- Cyclisation mechanism,
- P450
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