An unusual metal-bound 4-fluorothreonine transaldolase from Streptomyces sp. MA37 catalyses promiscuous transaldol reactions

β-Hydroxy-α-amino acids (βH-AAs) are key components of many bioactive molecules as well as exist as specialised metabolites. Among these βH-AAs, 4-fluorothreonine (4-FT) is the only naturally occurring fluorinated AA discovered thus far. Here we report overexpression and biochemical characterisation of 4-fluorothreonine transaldolase from Streptomyces sp. MA37 (FTaseMA), a homologue of FTase previously identified in the biosynthesis of 4-FT in S. cattleya. FTaseMA displays considerable substrate plasticity to generate 4-FT as well as other β-hydroxy-α-amino acids with various functionalities at C4 position, giving the prospect of new chemo-enzymatic applications. The enzyme has a hybrid of two catalytic domains, serine hydroxymethyltransferase (S) and aldolase (A). Site-directed mutagenesis allowed the identification of the key residues of FTases, suggesting that the active site of A domain has a historical reminiscent feature in metal-dependent aldolases. Elemental analysis demonstrated that FTaseMA is indeed a Zn2+-dependent enzyme, the first example of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) enzyme family fused with a metal-binding domain carrying out a distinct catalytic role. Finally, FTaseMA showed divergent evolutionary origin with other PLP dependent enzymes.