Isolation of an aldehyde dehydrogenase involved in the oxidation of fluoroacetaldehyde to fluoroacetate in Streptomyces cattleya

Streptomyces cattleya is unusual in that it produces fluoroacetate and 4-fluorothreonine as secondary metabolites. We now report the isolation of an NAD(+)-dependent fluoroacetaldehyde dehydrogenase from S. cattleya that mediates the oxidation of fluoroacetaldehyde to fluoroacetate. This is the first enzyme to be identified that is directly involved in fluorometabolite biosynthesis. Production of the enzyme begins in late exponential growth and continues into the stationary phase. Measurement of kinetic parameters shows that the enzyme has a high affinity for fluoroacetaldehyde and glycoaldehyde, but not acetaldehyde.