The bacteriostatic natural product enterocin from the marine microbe "Streptomyces maritimus" has an unprecedented carbon skeleton that is derived from an aromatic polyketide biosynthetic pathway. Its caged tricyclic, nonaromatic core is derived from a linear poly-beta-ketide precursor that formally undergoes a Favorskii-like oxidative rearrangement. In vivo characterization of the gene encM th...

A facile genetic methodology in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans allowed exchange of the starter unit ACP transacylase (SAT) domain in the nonreduced polyketide synthase (NR-PKS) AfoE of the asperfuranone pathway with the SAT domains from 10 other NR-PKSs. The newly created hybrid with the NR-PKS AN3386 is able to accept a longer starter unit in place of the native substrate to creat...

Benzalacetone synthase, from the medicinal plant Rheum palmatum (RpBAS), is a plant-specific chalcone synthase (CHS) superfamily of type III polyketide synthase (PKS). RpBAS catalyzes the one-step, decarboxylative condensation of 4-coumaroyl-CoA with malonyl-CoA to produce the C(6)-C(4) benzalacetone scaffold. The X-ray crystal structures of RpBAS confirmed that the diketide-forming activity is...

peppermint has considerable commercial value and widely cultivated for essential oil production, especially menthol. the aim of this study was to determine the quantitative expression of pulegone reductase (pr), menthofuran synthase (mfs) and limonene synthase (ls) genes in menthol biosynthesis pathway in mentha x piperita , using semiquantitative rt-pcr analysis and evaluating menthol producti...

Isolates of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea that carry the gene encoding Avirulence Conferring Enzyme1 (ACE1) are specifically recognized by rice (Oryza sativa) cultivars carrying the resistance gene Pi33. This recognition enables resistant plants to activate a defense response. ACE1 was isolated by map-based cloning and encodes a putative hybrid between a polyketide synthase and a non...

Benzalacetone synthase (BAS) and chalcone synthase (CHS) are plant-specific type III polyketide synthases (PKSs) that share approximately 70% amino acid sequence identity. BAS catalyzes a one-step decarboxylative condensation of 4-coumaroyl-CoA with malonyl-CoA to produce a diketide benzalacetone, whereas CHS performs sequential condensations with three malonyl-CoA to generate a tetraketide cha...

Pradimicins are potent antifungal antibiotics having an unusual dihydrobenzo[alpha]naphthacenequinone aglycone substituted with D-alanine and sugars. Pradimicins are polyketide antibiotics produced by Actinomadura hibisca P157-2. The gene cluster involved in the biosynthesis of pradimicins was cloned and sequenced. The pradimicin gene cluster was localized to a 39-kb DNA segment and its involve...