Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.133, No.34, 13314-13316, 2011
Engineering of an "Unnatural" Natural Product by Swapping Polyketide Synthase Domains in Aspergillus nidulans
An StcA-AfoE hybrid polyketide synthase (PKS), generated by swapping the AfoE (asperfuranone biosynthesis) SAT domain with the StcA (sterigmatocystin biosynthesis) SAT domian, produced a major new metabolite with the same chain length as the native AfoE product. Structure elucidation allowed us to propose a likely pathway, and feeding studies supported the hypothesis that the chain length of PKS metabolites may be under precise control of KS and PT domains.