S82: Meroterpenoid biosynthesis in marine actinomycetes

Marine actinomycetes are tremendous sources of structurally fascinating and biologically active natural products. Streptomyces spp. CNQ525 and CNH189 are two ocean sediment-derived bacteria that produce a series of halogenated polyketide meroterpenoids that include the napyradiomycins and a new family of antibiotics. I will describe our efforts to characterize the biosynthesis of these molecules through genetics, biochemistry, and metabolite analysis and in particular our efforts to understand the post-prenylation enzymatic processing by vanadium-dependent chloroperoxidases. I will also discuss the application of short-read DNA sequencing of Streptomyces genomes for the discovery of new biosynthetic gene clusters associated with hybrid isoprenoid metabolites.