Biosynthetic mechanism of antitumor enediyne natural products.

17 p.In the past three years, we have characterized two linear carbonyl-conjugated polyenes generated by the iterative polyketide synthase (PKS) involved in the biosynthesis of the 10- membered enediyne core of calicheamicin. The results provide insight into the mysterious biosynthetic mechanism of the unique enediyne. The carbonyl-conjugated polyene differs from the precursor for 9-membered enediyne, suggesting that the divergence of the 9- and 10- membered enediyne biosynthetic pathways starts at the PKS stage.ARC 7/0