Figure 1

Synthesis pathway of biotin as it is known for Bacteria. In E. coli, BioC and BioH provide the pimeloyl moiety. In Bacillus spp., BioW produces the precursor molecule for biotin. The other genes bioFADB synthesizing the two fused rings and finally biotin are highly conserved5. E. coli BioF can convert both pimeloyl-CoA and -ACP while Bacillus subtilis BioF can only accept pimeloyl-CoA42.