Molecular genetic and enzymological techniques have been employed to study antibiotic biosynthesis. In this thesis, we studied the formation and modification of the nonproteinogenic amino acid enduracididine (End), which exists in two important antibiotics, mannopeptimycins (MPPs) and enduracidin.
Sequence analysis of the MPP gene cluster revealed that the product of...
Among the myriad of naturally occurring bioactive compounds are the aminocyclopentitol-containing natural products that represent a family of sugar-derived microbial secondary metabolites, such as the antibiotics pactamycin, allosamidin, and trehazolin. Pactamycin, a structurally unique aminocyclitol antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces pactum, consists of a 5-membered ring aminocyclitol (cyclopentitol) unit, two aromatic...
L-pipecolic acid (L-PA) is the higher homolog of proline. It occurs naturally in
many organisms, including primates, as an intermediate in lysine degradation. The
pathway by which lysine is converted into L-pipecolic acid employs the enzyme Lpipecolate
oxidase (L-PO), and appears to be tissue specific to the central nervous system...
A gene cluster responsible for the biosynthesis of the antitumor agent
cetoniacytone A was identified in Actinomyces sp. strain Lu 9419, an
endosymbiotic bacteria isolated from the intestines of the rose chafer beetle. The
nucleotide sequence analysis of the 26 Kb DNA region revealed the presence of 17
complete ORFs,...