Biosynthetic mechanism for the type 2 diabetes treatment drug acarbose is not fully revealed. Here, the authors show that shunt pathways and inefficient amino-deoxyhexose biosynthesis lead to 1-epi-valienol and valienol accumulation, and minimizing the flux to these shunt products can increase acarbose titer in Actinoplanes species.
- Qinqin Zhao
- Yuchang Luo
- Zixin Deng
