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 antibiotic moenomycin consisting of several components. A solid phase extraction procedure was developed which allowed a rapid isolation of both moenomycin and its biosynthetic intermediates from culture filtrates. Semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography followed by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry provided structural data on the different moenomycin components. In order to obtain initial information on the biosynthetic pathway, moenomycin non-producing mutants were isolated. They were shown to release intermediates with shorter lipid chains suggesting that the lipid chain synthesis probably takes place at a later stage of the moenomycin biosynthesis. Based on the biological activity and the analytical data, we assume that a modification and in particular a shorter lipid portion drastically influences the inhibitory activity of this antibiotic.