Química dos produtos naturais

Reviews
Polyketide Biosynthesis

C. Hertweck

DOI: 10.1002/anie.200806121

The Biosynthetic Logic of Polyketide Diversity
Christian Hertweck*

Keywords: antibiotics · biosynthesis · enzymes · natural products · polyketides

Dedicated to Professor Heinz Floss on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

Angewandte
4688

Chemie
 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 4688 – 4716

www.angewandte.org

Polyketide Biosynthesis

Angewandte
From the Contents
1. Polyketides and the Basic Programming 2. Diversity of Aromatic Polyketides 4689

Chemie

Polyketides constitute one of the major classes of natural products.
Many of these compounds or derivatives thereof have become important therapeutics for clinical use; in contrast, various polyketides are infamous food-spoiling toxins or virulence factors. What is particularly remarkable about this heterogeneous group of compounds comprising of polyethers, polyenes, polyphenols, macrolides, and enediynes is that they are mainly derived from one of the simplest building blocks available in nature: acetic acid. Investigations at the chemical, genetic, and biochemical levels have shed light on the biosynthetic programs that lead to the large structural diversity of polyketides .This review highlights recently unveiled biosynthetic mechanisms to generate highly diverse and complex molecules.

4692

3. Diversity of Complex Polyketides 4701 4. Concluding Remarks 4712

1. Polyketides and the Basic Programming
Polyketides represent a highly diverse group of natural products having structurally intriguing carbon skeletons which comprises polyphenols, macrolides, polyenes, enediynes, and polyethers. Although their exact roles in their original biological contexts are not known in all cases, it is believed that they function as pigments, virulence factors, infochemicals, or for defense. From a pharmacological point of view, polyketides are an important source of