Biosynthesis of unusual aminocyclitol-containing natural products

The aminocyclitol family of natural products is a class of sugar-derived microbial secondary metabolites that demonstrate significant biological activities. Within this class of natural products are the C7N-aminocyclitol-containing compounds, which were originally associated with potent sugar-hydrolase inhibition. However, recent discoveries indicate a broader array of chemical structures and biological activities of this class of compounds. Using both conventional feeding experiments and contemporary molecular genetic approaches, some progress has been made in understanding the biosynthesis of this class of natural products. Results of in silico investigation also suggest a wide distribution of this class of natural products or closely related compounds across different classes of microorganisms, including cyanobacteria and fungi. This review describes our recent progress in the biosynthetic studies of a number of C7N-aminocyclitol-containing compounds and the potential use of bioinformatic approaches to search for novel aminocyclitol-containing natural products.