US scientists have developed a cheap and simple way to examine the selectivity of the ketosynthase domain found in polyketide synthases.
Polyketide synthases are multicomponent enzyme systems that make polyketide natural products. They have received attention from researchers hoping to harness their potential as a platform for generating new and improved therapeutics. But the field of polyketide engineering has faced a constant struggle to overcome often strict substrate selectivities of the critical biosynthetic enzymes.
The new fluorescence-based method is much simpler and cheaper than previously used radiolabelling techniques and should enable improved understanding of how these biosynthetic machines function.
A Mechanism-Based Fluorescence Transfer Assay for Examining Ketosynthase Selectivity
Gitanjeli Prasad, Lawrence S. Borketey, Tsung-Yi Lin and Nathan A. Schanrr
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2012, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB26008E
