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SUMMARY:Structures and Strategies for Assembly-Line Biosynthesis of Terpen
 oid Natural Products - David Christianson 
DTSTART:20250527T120000Z
DTEND:20250527T130000Z
UID:TALK226477@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:90994
DESCRIPTION:Terpene cyclases catalyze the most complex chemical reactions 
 in biology\, in that more than half of the carbon atoms in the isoprenoid 
 substrate undergo changes in bonding or hybridization during a typical cyc
 lization cascade. Although the substrate pool for these enzymes is limited
  to just a handful of linear isoprenoids\, more than 100\,000 terpenoid na
 tural products have been identified to date. X-ray crystal structures reve
 al that three principal catalytic modules are at the roots of this exquisi
 te chemodiversity. Most recently\, cryo-EM structures of bifunctional terp
 ene synthases show how prenyltransferases generate linear isoprenoids that
  are utilized as cyclase substrates in massive oligomeric assemblies. Subs
 trate channelling ensures efficient carbon management in some\, but not al
 l\, of these systems. The structure of a bifunctional terpene cyclase-phos
 phatase chimera further shows how isoprenoid cyclization is combined with 
 a downstream tailoring activity in a newly identified class of bifunctiona
 l terpene synthases. 
LOCATION:Jean Thomas Lecture theatre\, Sanger Building\, Tennis Court Road
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