In vivo characterization of NcsB3 to establish the complete biosynthesis of the naphthoic acid moiety of the neocarzinostatin chromophore.

Neocarzinostatin (NCS) is an enediyne antibiotic produced by Streptomyces carzinostaticus. The NCS chromophore consists of an enediyne core, a sugar moiety, and a naphthoic acid (NA) moiety. The latter plays a key role in binding the NCS chromophore to its apoprotein to protect and stabilize the bioactive NCS chromophore. In this study, we expressed three genes: ncsB (naphthoic acid synthase), ncsB3 (P450 hydroxylase), and ncsB1 (O-methyltransferase), in Streptomyces lividans TK24. The three genes were sufficient to produce 2-hydroxy-7-methoxy-5-methyl-1-naphthoic acid. Production was analyzed and confirmed by LC-MS and nuclear magnetic resonance. Here, we report the functional characterization of ncsB3 and thereby elucidate the complete biosynthetic pathway of NA moiety of the NCS chromophore.