Exploring the biosynthetic potential of herboxidiene-producing organism Streptomyces chromofuscus via modifications of fermentation parameters

Herboxidiene is a polyketide produced by Streptomyces chromofuscus investigated for its potent herbicidal as well as spliceosome-targeting activity. The natural product is now of interest to the Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) of the NCI due to its activity in the NCI60 Cell Line Screen.  With the goal of optimizing herboxidiene production to supply material for further testing, several studies were designed to include variations in media components, growths times and scale, and the addition of an adsorptive resin. We show results where the optimal growth conditions not only increased the yield of herboxidiene, but yielded in a significant increase of related analogues.