Enzymes in the biosynthesis of aromatic polyketide antibiotics

Aromatic polyketides are secondary metabolites that afford some of the most common antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs currently in clinical use. Not least because of their medical importance, the biosynthesis of these compounds has attracted considerable interest during the past few years; important advances have been made in the structural and mechanistic characterisation of the enzymes involved. These studies are expected to have implications for the production of novel therapeutic agents by combinatorial biosynthesis.