Assembly Line Biosynthesis of Polyketide Antibiotics

Chaitan Khosla, Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, California, USA

Many structurally complex polyketide antibiotics are synthesized by multi-enzyme systems that operate as assembly lines. Their apparently modular architecture has opened the door to engineering new antibiotics by rationally manipulating the DNA encoding these megasynthases. Therefore, understanding the mechanistic principles by which these enzymatic assembly lines operate represents an exciting frontier in fundamental and applied chemistry. In this lecture I will summarize our current understanding of the principles of vectorial biosynthesis on assembly line polyketide synthases.