Dr Shwan Rachid and his co-author has published a new article in Chemistry & Biology, Volume 19, Issue 10, 1278-1287, 27 September 2012. The new publication covers Bottromycins which represent a promising class of antibiotics binding to the therapeutically unexploited A-site of the bacterial ribosome. The compounds inhibit bacterial translation process, and they are active against clinically important and multidrug-resistant pathogens. In this work, we set out to identify the biosynthetic gene locus in a terrestrial actinomycete, which is shown to produce bottromycin A2, B2, and C2. This work we identified the biosynthetic gene cluster required for bottromycin biosynthesis and set the stage for synthetic biotechnology approaches toward structure and yield improvement which is required for industrial large scale production.

Further details:

Synthetic Biotechnology to Study and Engineer Ribosomal Bottromycin Biosynthesis 

Liujie Huo, Shwan Rachid, Marc Stadler, Silke C. Wenzel, Rolf Müller

Chemistry & Biology - 26 October 2012 (Vol. 19, Issue 10, pp. 1278-1287)