How do bacteria build up natural products?

A complex of three proteins protects the highly reactive hexaketide when it is extended to the octaketide. In cooperation with other proteins, important natural substances are produced from the resulting octaketide. Image: M. Schmalhofer / M. Groll / TUM X-ray structure analysis gives detailed insights into molecular factory - The active agents of many drugs are natural products, so called because often only microorganisms are able to produce the complex structures. Similar to the production line in a factory, large enzyme complexes put these active agent molecules together. A team of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Goethe University Frankfurt has now succeeded in investigating the basic mechanisms of one of these molecular factories. Many important drugs such as antibiotics or active agents against cancer are natural products which are built up by microorganisms for example bacteria or fungi. In the laboratory, these natural products can often be not produced at all or only with great effort.