Identification of a -Glycosyltransferase Involved in Medermycin Biosynthesis.

-Glycosylation in the biosynthesis of bioactive natural products is quite unique, which has not been studied well. Medermycin, as an antitumor agent in the family of pyranonaphthoquinone antibiotics, is featured with unique -glycosylation. Here, a new -glycosyltransferase (-GT) Med-8 was identified to be essential for the biosynthesis of medermycin, as the first example of -GT to recognize a rare deoxyaminosugar (angolosamine). -8 and six genes (-14, -15, -16, -17, -18, and -20 located in the medermycin biosynthetic gene cluster) predicted for the biosynthesis of angolosamine were proved to be functional and sufficient for -glycosylation. A -glycosylation cassette composed of these seven genes could convert a proposed substrate into a -glycosylated product. In conclusion, these genes involved in the -glycosylation of medermycin were functionally identified and biosynthetically engineered, and they provided the possibility of producing new -glycosylated compounds.