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Genome mining discovery of aquimarinols, threoninol-containing acylpeptides from Aquimarina muelleri

The Journal of Antibiotics volume 79, pages 221–226 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Thioester reductase domain in nonribosomal peptide synthetases catalyzes reductive offloading to produce aldehyde- or alcohol-containing peptides. By genome mining focusing on thioester reductase domains, we isolated aquimarinols A-D, four novel polyketide-peptide hybrid metabolites isolated from the sponge-derived strain Aquimarina muelleri LMG 22569. Structural elucidation of aquimarinols revealed a β-formamidated fatty acid (FA) moiety and a threoninol unit linked by a peptide bond or an ester bond. The biosynthesis of aquimarinols is proposed to proceed via a hybrid trans-AT polyketide synthase-nonribosomal peptide synthetase pathway coupled with modification enzymes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Key Laboratory Construction Project and the National Natural Science Foundation of China General Program (22177092) to L.Z.

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  1. Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Precise Synthesis of Functional Molecules, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Westlake University, 600 Dunyu Rd., Hangzhou, 310030, Zhejiang Province, China

    Zhihan Zhang & Lihan Zhang

  2. Institute of Natural Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Rd., Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang Province, China

    Lihan Zhang

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  1. Zhihan Zhang
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Correspondence to Lihan Zhang.

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Zhang, Z., Zhang, L. Genome mining discovery of aquimarinols, threoninol-containing acylpeptides from Aquimarina muelleri. J Antibiot 79, 221–226 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41429-026-00894-3

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