Production of Gephyronic Acid

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Description: Recombinant methods and materials for producing the polyketide gephyronic acid in recombinant host cells; recombinant host cells that produce gephyronic acid; novel polyketides related in structure to gephyronic acid.  The myxobacterial natural product, gephyronic acid isolated from Archangium gephyra and Cystobacter violaceus exhibits nanomolar cytostatic effects against multiple mammalian cell lines. However, due to the unfavorable fermentation conditions and yields of the native producers, access to gephyronic acid is not currently amenable for medicinal viability.  Development of heterologous platforms utilizing the strain Myxococcus xanthus for the production of gephyronic acid provides access to significant, scalable quantities of the known bioactive compound gephyronic acid and the production of novel analogs and relates to the fields of chemistry, medicinal chemistry, medicine, molecular biology, and pharmacology.