Macrocyclic polyketide formation

Oligomycin [63] (Fig. 13) is a 26-membered macrocyclic lactone produced by avermectin-producing Streptomyces avermitilis. The formation of oligomycin backbone requires 16 cycles of condensations. A region encoding polyketide synthase of oligomycin biosynthesis was cloned by transposon-induced mutagenesis. 

Rifamycin B, produced by Amycolatopsis mediterranei, is one of the most notable members of the ansamycin family [36, 37, 64, 65] (Fig. 14). It has been used clinically in a synthetically modified form called rifampicin and it is still one of the first-line therapies effective in the treatment of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections. The starter unit for rifamycin polyketide assembly is part of the chromophore and is derived from 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid. Five polyketide synthases are involved in the formation of rifamycin chromophore and the first polyketide synthase contains at the N terminus the loading domain for 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid, which consists of an acyl-CoA ligase linked to ACP, and module 1-3. The rifamycin polyketide synthase lacks a TE domain at the C terminus. The release of polyketide chain from polyketide synthase and the formation of amide to generate the macrocyclic lactam will be catalyzed by RifF, which is very similar to arylamine A-acetyltransferase. 

Since the PKS (polyketide synthase) gene cluster for actinorhodin (act), an antibiotic produced by Streptomyces coelicolor[ 109], was cloned, more than 20 different gene clusters encoding polyketide biosynthetic enzymes have been isolated from various organisms, mostly actinomycetes, and characterized [98, 100]. Bacterial PKSs are classified into two broad types based on gene organization and biosynthetic mechanisms [98, 100, 102]. In modular PKSs (or type I), discrete multifunctional enzymes control the sequential addition of thioester units and their subsequent modification to produce macrocyclic compounds (or complex polyketides). Type I PKSs are exemplified by 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase (DEBS), which catalyzes the formation of the macrolactone portion of erythromycin A, an antibiotic produced by Saccharopolyspora erythraea. There are 7 different active-site domains in DEBS, but a given module contains only 3 to 6 active sites. Three domains, acyl carrier protein (ACP), acyltransferase (AT), and P-ketoacyl-ACP synthase (KS), constitute a minimum module. Some modules contain additional domains for reduction of p-carbons, e.g., P-ketoacyl-ACP reductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enoyl reductase (ER). The thioesterase-cyclase (TE) protein is present only at the end of module 6. 

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