Letter abstract
Nature Chemical Biology 2, 429 - 433 (2006)
Published online: 9 July 2006 | doi:10.1038/nchembio805
Different polyketide folding modes converge to an identical molecular architecture
Gerhard Bringmann1, Torsten F Noll1, Tobias A M Gulder1, Matthias Grüne1, Michael Dreyer1, Christopher Wilde2, Florian Pankewitz3, Monika Hilker3, Gail D Payne4, Amanda L Jones4, Michael Goodfellow4 & Hans-Peter Fiedler2
Metabolic diversity is being studied intensively by evolutionary biologists, but so far there has been no comparison of biosynthetic pathways leading to a particular secondary metabolite in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. We have detected the bioactive anthraquinone chrysophanol, which serves as a chemical defense in diverse eukaryotic organisms, in a bacterial Nocardia strain, thereby permitting the first comparative biosynthetic study. Two basic modes of folding a polyketide chain to fused-ring aromatic structures have so far been described1: mode F (referring to fungi) and mode S (from Streptomyces). We have demonstrated that in eukaryotes (fungi, higher plants and insects), chrysophanol is formed via folding mode F. In actinomycetes, by contrast, the cyclization follows mode S. Thus, chrysophanol is the first polyketide synthase product that is built up by more than one polyketide folding mode.
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
- Institute of Microbiology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.
- Institute of Biology, Free University Berlin, Haderslebener Strasse 9, D-12163 Berlin, Germany.
- Division of Biology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.
Correspondence to: Gerhard Bringmann1 e-mail: bringman@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
