Stereochemical uniformity in marine polyether ladders--implications for the biosynthesis and structure of maitotoxin.

marine polyether ladders (Figure 1 and Figure 2) can be grouped into 14 backbone structures and has gained much notoriety in being responsible for countless cases of human food poisoning and massive fish kills. Maitotoxin itself displays the highest toxicity of any nonproteinaceous natural product isolated thus far. The biogenesis of the polyether ladders, whilst attracting speculation, has advanced little further than the identification of their polyketide origin.