Characterization of the Glycosyltransferase Activity of DesVII: Analysis of and Implications for the Biosynthesis of Macrolide Antibiotics.

Deoxy and amino sugars are often constituents of secondary metabolites, many of which are of clinical importance. These unusual sugars are attached through 0-, N-, or C- linkages to their respective aglycons and commonly play essential roles in determining the biological activities of the parent compounds. Altering the composition of sugar appendages in glycoconjugates holds promise for creating new products with novel biological activities. Hence, efforts to develop effective glycosylation strategies have been vigorously pursued by scientists for decades. Significant progress has been made recently using genetic and biochemical methods to perform glycosylation in vivo. For example, the feasibility of reengineering sugar biosynthetic machineries to generate diverse sugar structures and to incorporate foreign glycosyltransferase genes into appropriate strains to facilitate coupling between various sugar donors and aglycon acceptors in a combinatorial manner has been demonstrated.