The Type I Fatty Acid and Polyketide Synthases: a Tale of Two Megasynthases

Overview

Journal Nat Prod Rep

Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry

Date 2007 Sep 28

PMID 17898897

Citations 124

Authors

Stuart Smith

Shiou-Chuan Tsai

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This review chronicles the synergistic growth of the fields of fatty acid and polyketide synthesis over the last century. In both animal fatty acid synthases and modular polyketide synthases, similar catalytic elements are covalently linked in the same order in megasynthases. Whereas in fatty acid synthases the basic elements of the design remain immutable, guaranteeing the faithful production of saturated fatty acids, in the modular polyketide synthases, the potential of the basic design has been exploited to the full for the elaboration of a wide range of secondary metabolites of extraordinary structural diversity.

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