The alkaloids crocagins are derived from a ribosomal peptide through a series of enzymatic post-translational modifications. A combination of biochemistry and structural biology techniques has now been used to elucidate this biosynthetic pathway, propose a mechanism for the formation of the tetracyclic core structure and enable genome mining for related natural products.
- Sebastian Adam
- Dazhong Zheng
- Jesko Koehnke