ISOLATION AND ANALYSIS OF MOENOMYCIN AND ITS BIOSYNTHETIC INTERMEDIATES FROM STREPTOMYCES-GHANAENSIS (ATCC 14672) WILDTYPE AND SELECTED MUTANTS

Streptomyces ghanaensis (ATCC 14672) produces the phosphoglycolipid an tibiotic moenomycin consisting of several components. A solid phase ex traction procedure was developed which allowed a rapid isolation of bo th moenomycin and its biosynthetic intermediates from culture filtrate s. Semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography followed by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry provided str uctural data on the different moenomycin components. In order to obtai n initial information on the biosynthetic pathway moenomycin non-produ cing mutants were isolated. They were shown to release intermediates w ith shorter lipid chains suggesting that the lipid chain synthesis pro bably takes place at a later stage of the moenomycin biosynthesis. Bas ed on the biological activity and the analytical data, we assume that a modification and in particular a shorter lipid portion drastically i nfluences the inhibitory activity of this antibiotic.