Towards engineered polyketides.

Rapid advances have been made over the past 10 years in the identification of the biosynthetic machinery that carries out the biosynthesis of polyketide natural products. Many such compounds are used in various therapeutic areas, including antibacterials, anticancer, antifungals and cholesterol lowering. It is now possible to alter the biosynthetic machinery to produce radically altered structural analogues that are not accessible by conventional technologies, such as total synthesis or semi synthesis. The most rapid progress has been achieved in the antibiotic field through the production of a large number of novel erythromycins.