P-Lactams biosynthesis

Brakhage, A. A., Molecular regulation of P-lactam biosynthesis in filamentous fungi. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., 1998, 62, 547-585. 

A Paradkar, SE Jensen, RH Mosher. Comparative genetics and molecular biology of P-lactam biosynthesis. In WR Strohl, ed. Biotechnology of Antibiotics, 2nd ed. New York Marcel Dekker, 1997, pp 241-277. 

The p-lactam antibiotics are now so extensively described that we cannot attempt to summarize the literature. Since our emphasis is on sulfur, we note that the sulfur atoms of the thiazolidine or dihydrothiazine rings derive from a common tripeptide, 5-(L-a-aminoadipyl)-L-cysteinyl-D-valine 1, ACV or Arnstein tripeptide . ACV is converted to a p-lactam structure, isopenicillin N 2 and thereafter, the two pathways diverge, i.e. to benzylpenicillin 3 or to cephalosporin C 4 (Scheme 1). There have been extensive studies of the genes and enzymes involved in p-lactam biosynthesis. ... 

These two examples illustrate that both precursor flux, in the case of p-lactam biosynthesis, and antibiotic biosynthetic enzyme levels, in the case of tyiosin, can con-... 

Kovacevic S. Tobin MB, Miller JR. The p-lactam biosynthesis genes for isopenicillin N epimerase and deacetoxycephalosporin C synthetase are expressed from a single transcript in Streptomyces dawdigerus. J Bacterid 1990 172 3952-3958. 

Kupka, J., Y.-Q. Shen, S. Wolfe, and A. L. Demain Studies on the Ring-Cyclisation and Ring Expanding Enzymes of P-Lactam Biosynthesis in C. acremonium. Can. J. Microbiol. 29, 488 (1983). 

---