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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

From a Natural Product to Its Biosynthetic Gene Cluster: A Demonstration Using Polyketomycin from Streptomyces diastatochromogenes Tü6028
Published on: January 13, 2017
The Catalytic Diversity of Multimodular Polyketide Synthases: Natural Product Biosynthesis Beyond Textbook Assembly
Abstract:
Bacterial multimodular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are responsible for the biosynthesis of a wide range of pharmacologically active natural products. These megaenzymes contain numerous catalytic and structural domains and act as biochemical templates to generate complex polyketides in an assembly line-like fashion. While the prototypical PKS is composed of only a few different domain types that are fused together in a combinatorial fashion, an increasing number of enzymes is being found that contain additional components. These domains can introduce remarkably diverse modifications into polyketides. This review discusses our current understanding of such noncanonical domains and their role in expanding the biosynthetic versatility of bacterial PKSs.
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