Acurin A, a novel hybrid compound, biosynthesized by individually translated PKS- and NRPS-encoding genes in Aspergillus aculeatus.

•A biosynthetic gene cluster for the hybrid polyketide-nonribosomal peptide compound acurin A in Aspergillus aculeatus.•The PKS and NRPS responsible for acurin A production are two individually transcribed entities.•Phylogenetics suggest that the separated PKS and NRPS is a result from the fission of an ancestral PKS-NRPS hybrid.•The biosynthetic capacity of A. aculeatus is facilitated by the use of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing.