An acetyltransferase controls the metabolic flux in rubromycin polyketide biosynthesis by direct modulation of redox tailoring enzymes.

The often complex control of bacterial natural product biosynthesis typically involves global and pathway-specific transcriptional regulators of gene expression, which often limits the yield of bioactive compounds under laboratory conditions. However, little is known about regulation mechanisms on the enzymatic level. Here, we report a novel regulatory principle for natural products involving a dedicated acetyltransferase, which modifies a redox-tailoring enzyme and thereby enables pathway furcation and alternating pharmacophore assembly in rubromycin polyketide biosynthesis.