Access

Letter

Nature Chemical Biology 2, 729–735 (1 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/nchembio829

Natural combinatorial peptide libraries in cyanobacterial symbionts of marine ascidians

Mohamed S Donia , Brian J Hathaway , Sebastian Sudek , Margo G Haygood , M J Rosovitz , Jacques Ravel & Eric W Schmidt

A large family of cytotoxic cyclic peptides exemplified by the patellamides has been isolated from ascidians harboring the obligate cyanobacterial symbionts Prochloron spp.. Genome sequence analysis of these symbionts has revealed that Prochloron spp. synthesize patellamides by a ribosomal pathway.