Sebastian Keller, Karl M. Wetterhorn, Alison Vecellio, Mark Seeger, Ivan Rayment, Torsten Schubert

• Structural diversity of natural cobamides (Cbas, B12 vitamers) is limited to the nucleotide loop. The loop is connected to the cobalt‐containing corrin ring via an (R)‐1‐aminopropan‐2‐ol O‐2‐phosphate (AP‐P) linker moiety. AP‐P is produced by the l‐threonine O‐3‐phosphate (l‐Thr‐P) decarboxylase CobD. Here, the CobD homolog SMUL_1544 of the organohalide‐respiring epsilonproteobacterium Sulfurospirillum multivorans was characterized as a decarboxylase that produces ethanolamine O‐phosphate (EA‐P) from l‐serine O‐phosphate (l‐Ser‐P). EA‐P is assumed to serve as precursor of the linker moiety of norcobamides that function as cofactors in the respiratory reductive dehalogenase. SMUL_1544 (SmCobD) is a pyridoxal‐5′‐phosphate (PLP)‐containing enzyme. The structural analysis of the SmCobD apoprotein combined with the characterization of truncated mutant proteins uncovered a role of the SmCobD N‐terminus in efficient l‐Ser‐P conversion.