Actinobacteria
have been a rich source of novel, structurally complex
natural products for many decades. Although the largest genus is Streptomyces, from which the majority of antibiotics in
current and past clinical use were originally isolated, other less
common genera also have the potential to produce a wealth of novel
secondary metabolites. One example is the Kutzneria genus, which currently contains only five reported species. One
of these species is Kutzneria albida DSM 43870T,
which has 46 predicted biosynthetic gene clusters and is known to
produce the macrolide antibiotic aculeximycin. Here, we report the
isolation and structural characterization of two novel 30-membered
glycosylated macrolides, epemicins A and B, that are structurally
related to aculeximycin, from a rare Kutzneria sp.
The absolute configuration for all chiral centers in the two compounds
is proposed based on extensive 1D and 2D NMR studies and bioinformatics
analysis of the gene cluster. Through heterologous expression and
genetic inactivation, we have confirmed the link between the biosynthetic
gene cluster and the new molecules. These findings show the potential
of rare Actinobacteria to produce new, structurally diverse metabolites.
Furthermore, the gene inactivation represents the first published
report to genetically manipulate a representative of the Kutzneria genus.