Discovery, Structure Correction, and Biosynthesis of Actinopyrones, Cytotoxic Polyketides from the Deep-Sea Hydrothermal-Vent-Derived sp. SCSIO ZS0520.

Three new actinopyrone derivatives, actinopyrones E-G (, , and ), together with three known analogues, PM050463 (), actinopyrone D (), and PM050511 (), were isolated from sp. SCSIO ZS0520 derived from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Their structures, complete with absolute configurations, were elucidated using extensive spectroscopic analyses combined with Mosher's method, ECD calculations, and bioinformatics analyses. These findings corrected the absolute configurations of previously reported actinopyrone analogues , , and at C-3, C-9, and C-10. Notably, compound displayed notable cytotoxicity against six human cell lines with IC values of 0.26-2.22 μM. A likely biosynthetic pathway and annotations of protein function are proposed on the basis of bioinformatics analyses. Genes coding for methyltransferase and glycosyltransferase tailoring chemistries needed to generate final structures were notably absent from the biosynthetic gene cluster. Taken together, these results enable further bioengineering of the actinopyrones and related congeners as potential antitumor agents.