Some toxic natural products are made in deactivated forms to avoid damage to the host. Metagenomic mining of sponge symbionts and biochemical characterization now define a new inactivating mechanism in which calyculin is made as a pyrophosphate by symbiotic bacteria and cleaved to the active monophosphate by the sponge.
- Toshiyuki Wakimoto
- Yoko Egami
- Ikuro Abe
