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Avermectin: biochemical and molecular basis of its biosynthesis and regulation

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Abstract

Avermectin and its analogues, produced by Streptomyces avermitilis, are major commercial antiparasitic agents in the field of animal health, agriculture, and human infections. They are 16-membered pentacyclic lactone compounds derived from polyketide and linked to a disaccharide of the methylated deoxysugar l-oleandrose. Labeling studies, analyses of the biosynthetically blocked mutants, and the identification of the avermectin gene cluster allows characterization of most of the biosynthetic pathway. Recent completion of S. avermitilis genome sequencing is also expected to help in revealing the precise biosynthetic sequence and the complicated regulatory mechanism for avermectin biosynthesis, which has been long-awaited to be elucidated. The well characterized avermectin biosynthetic pathway and availability of S. avermitilis genome information in combination with the recent development of combinatorial biosynthesis should allow us to redesign more potent avermectin analogues and to engineer S. avermitilis as a more efficient host for the production of important commercial analogues.

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Acknowledgements

Work in our laboratories was supported by grant R01-2002-000-00050-0 from the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation (KOSEF; to Y.Y.J.), the ERC for the Advanced Bioseparation Technology, KOSEF (to E.S.K.), and the Brain Korea 21 program supported by the Korean Ministry of Education (to C.Y.C.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, University of Ulsan, 680-749, Ulsan, Korea

    Y. J. Yoon

  2. Division of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Inha University, Incheon, Korea

    E.-S. Kim

  3. Samyang Genex Biotech Research Institute, Taejeon, Korea

    Y.-S. Hwang

  4. School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, 151-742, Seoul, Korea

    C.-Y. Choi

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  1. Y. J. Yoon
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  2. E.-S. Kim
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  4. C.-Y. Choi
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Correspondence to C.-Y. Choi.

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Yoon, Y.J., Kim, ES., Hwang, YS. et al. Avermectin: biochemical and molecular basis of its biosynthesis and regulation. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 63, 626–634 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-003-1491-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-003-1491-4

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