PRELIMINARY CRYSTALLIZATION AND DIFFRACTION ANALYSIS OF RECOMBINANT PENTALENENE SYNTHASE. Charles A. Lesburg, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

A sesquiterpene cyclase found in Streptomyces UC5319, pentalenene synthase, has been crystallized in space group P6₃ with unit cell dimensions a = b = 183.5 Å, and c = 56.5 Å. Hexagonal prismatic crystals, approximately 0.2 x 0.2 x 0.3 mm, diffract to approximately 2.9 Å resolution using monochromatic synchrotron radiation and to 3.5 Å resolution using CuK[[alpha]] radiation. Pentalenene synthase catalyzes the biosynthesis of pentalenene, a precursor to the pentalenolactone family of antibiotics. From the universal (and achiral) building block, farnesyl pyrophosphate, pentalenene synthase catalyzes the formation of four stereocenters in the construction of the three fused five-membered rings of pentalenene.