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Nature Chemical Biology 3, 711–715 (1 November 2007) | doi:10.1038/nchembio.2007.29

Biosynthesis of the earthy odorant geosmin by a bifunctional Streptomyces coelicolor enzyme

Jiaoyang Jiang , Xiaofei He & David E Cane

Geosmin (1) is responsible for the characteristic odor of moist soil, as well as off-flavors in drinking water and foodstuffs. Geosmin is generated from farnesyl diphosphate (FPP, 2) by an enzyme that is encoded by the SCO6073 gene in the soil organism Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) (ref.