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Published on: August 22, 2018
Biosynthesis of piperazic acid via N5-hydroxy-ornithine in Kutzneria spp. 744
Christopher S Neumann1, Wei Jiang, John R Heemstra
1Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract:
Which came first? We have investigated the biosynthesis of the piperazic acid (Piz) building blocks in the kutzneride family of metabolites. The flavin-dependent oxygenase KtzI was shown to convert ornithine to N(5)-OH-Orn. LC-MS/MS showed (13)C(5)-labeled versions of these two amino acids to be direct precursors of piperazic acid in vivo.
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