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Macrolactins: biological activity and biosynthesis

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Abstract

Marine microorganisms have proven to be a rich source of natural products with unique structures and novel activities, due to their special living conditions. Macrolactins (MLNs), mostly produced by marine-derived microorganisms, are a group of 24-membered lactone natural products, which exhibit potent antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic and other activities. Their extensive biological activities make them potential compounds for drug development. MLNs are biosynthesized via a type I polyketide synthase (PKS) pathway with different tailoring steps, such as epoxidation, glycosylation and acylation. These modification steps provide opportunities to diversify their structures by combinatorial biosynthesis strategies. This review mainly focuses on the newly discovered MLNs in the past five years, including their biological activities and relevant biosynthetic studies.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFC0312501) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1706206, 31570032).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs, Ministry of Education of China, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Ting Wu, Fei Xiao & Wenli Li

  2. Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Wenli Li

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  1. Ting Wu
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  2. Fei Xiao
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  3. Wenli Li
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TW, FX and WL reviewed the literatures and wrote the manuscript. The manuscript has been approved by all the authors.

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Correspondence to Fei Xiao or Wenli Li.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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No animal and human rights are involved in this article.

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Edited by Chengchao Chen.

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Wu, T., Xiao, F. & Li, W. Macrolactins: biological activity and biosynthesis. Mar Life Sci Technol 3, 62–68 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42995-020-00068-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42995-020-00068-6

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