Biological fluorination from the sea: discovery of a SAM-dependent nucleophilic fluorinating enzyme from the marine-derived bacterium Streptomyces xinghaiensis NRRL B24674

Abstract

We have discovered and characterised a fluorinating enzyme from marine-derived Streptomyces xinghaiensis. It is able to install a fluorine atom into S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) to form 5′-fluorodeoxy adenosine. To our knowledge, this is the first ever fluorinase unveiled from a marine source. It is ‘the most efficient’ fluorinase by far and, impressively, highly robust. Therefore it promises to be useful in different cases such as bio-transformation and synthetic biology.