Isolation and structural elucidation of tetracenomycin F2 and tetracenomycin F1: early intermediates in the biosynthesis of tetracenomycin C in Streptomyces glaucescens.

This report describes the fermentation, isolation, and structural elucidation of tetracenomycin (Tcm) F2 [2], a metabolite produced by a blocked mutant strain WMH1092 of the Tcm C [1] producer Streptomyces glaucescens and by the recombinant strain S. glaucescens WMH1077 (pWHM722). Elucidation of the Tcm F2 structure shows that 2 is the earliest intermediate identified to date in the biosynthesis of 1. This is supported by the fact that 2 is very efficiently biotransformed to 1 by the S. glaucescens WMH1068 strain and is enzymatically converted to Tcm F1 [3] and to Tcm D3 [4], a known intermediate of Tcm C biosynthesis.