The Botrytis cinerea type III polyketide synthase shows unprecedented high catalytic efficiency toward long chain acyl-CoAs.

BPKS from Botrytis cinerea is a novel type III polyketide synthase that accepts C(4)-C(18) aliphatic acyl-CoAs and benzoyl-CoA as the starters to form pyrones, resorcylic acids and resorcinols through sequential condensation with malonyl-CoA. The catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K(m)) of BPKS was 2.8 × 10(5) s(-1) M(-1) for palmitoyl-CoA, the highest ever reported. Substrate docking analyses addressed the unique features of BPKS such as its high activity and high specificity toward long chain acyl-CoAs.