title: Myxobacterial natural product assembly lines: fascinating examples of curious biochemistry.
abstract: Over the last 20 years myxobacteria have made their way from highly exotic organisms to one of the major sources of microbial natural products with interesting biological activities. Recent progress towards achieving a better understanding of the genetics and the biochemistry of myxobacterial secondary metabolism, revealed the involvement of numerous exceptional combinations of polyketide synthases and nonribosomal peptide synthetases operating far from textbook biosynthetic logic. In this Highlight, selected examples of recently described systems are discussed in comparison to all myxobacterial natural product assembly lines known to date.
authors.affiliation: Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 15 11 50, Saarbrücken, 66041, Germany.
authors.forename: Silke Christine
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wenzel
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D001669:Biochemical Phenomena; D001671:Biochemistry; D001688:Biological Products / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008954:Models, Biological; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009231:Myxococcales / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010453:Peptide Synthases / Q000378:metabolism*; D048630:Polyketide Synthases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D048630:Polyketide Synthases; D010453:Peptide Synthases