Discovery of cryptic largimycins in Streptomyces reveals novel biosynthetic avenues enriching the structural diversity of the leinamycin family.

Largimycins are hybrid nonribosomal peptide-polyketides that constitute a new group of metabolites in the leinamycin family of natural products displaying unique structural features such as containing an oxazole instead of a thiazole ring or being oxime ester macrocycles, unprecedented in Nature, rather than macrolactams. Their discovery in Streptomyces argillaceus and Streptomyces canus has relied on the activation of two homologous silent gene clusters by overexpressing a transcriptional activator and cultivating in specific media. The proposed biosynthesis of largimycins includes the key action of the oxidoreductase LrgO, responsible for the formation of the oxime group involved in macrocyclization, and two putative cryptic biosynthetic steps consisting in chlorination of L-Thr by the NRPS loading module and incorporation of an olefinic exomethylene group by LrgJ PKS. The discovery of largimycins uncovers novel biosynthetic avenues employed by Nature to enrich the structural diversity of leinamycins and provides tools for combinatorial biosynthesis.