P450s in Microbial Sterol Biosynthesis and Drug Targets

摘要

The diversity of cytochromes P450s(CYP)in species from various Kingdoms of Life is extensive,sometimes comprising more than 1% of coding genes.Some bacteria do not contain CYP genes while in others,such as the actinomycetes,they are numerous.Microbial eukaryotes usually contain at least CYP51,the ancestral activity needed for sterol 14-demethylation.This CYP exists in some bacteria such as Methylococcus capsulatus and sterol biosynthesis in this methane utilising bacterium is discussed together with CYP51-like proteins of bacteria that have other endogenous functions.In fungi CYP51 is a drug target for azole compounds and here evolution is also occurring to drug resistant forms.Evolutionary aspects of bacterial sterol biosynthesis are discussed.