Our recent discovery of novel radical SAM enzyme that catalyzes free-radical mediated C-C bond formation during nikkomycin and polyoxin biosynthesis was published online in Nature Chemical Biology. The work is highlighted on the journal’s top page. Our studies showed that biosynthetic routes to nikkomycins and polyoxins proceeds via a bicyclic intermediate, octosyl acid phosphate (OAP), formed by a free radical mediated ring closure catalyzed by the radical SAM enzyme, PolH. We also propose OAP to be a common biosynthetic intermediate for various antifungal nucleosides, and PolH as the genetic marker for genome mining discovery of these natural products. Edward A. Lilla, a graduate student, performed all the characterizations described in the paper.
