Phosphinothricin-tripeptide biosynthesis: An original version of bacterial secondary metabolism?

The phosphinothricin-tripeptide-biosynthesis is characterized by an unusual structural organization of the non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) that may be interpreted as prototype of the multimodular NRPSs. Furthermore, the characterization of two aconitases with different biochemical functions shows an example for the evolution of a secondary metabolite enzyme from a primary metabolism enzyme.