The tunicamycins, secondary metabolites of various Streptomyces species, are invaluable tools in glycobiology. It has now been shown that their biosynthesis involves an unusual exo-glycal intermediate produced by previously unknown short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase activity.
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Goddard-Borger, E., Withers, S. Tackling tunicamycin. Nature Chem 4, 520–521 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1391
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1391
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