image: The sporulating fungus Aspergillus terreus (pink) produces a large multidomain polyketide synthase enzyme, depicted as a string of beads, that works with a second enoyl reductase (ER) enzyme to make dihydromonacolin L (grey structure) in ~35 chemical steps. Dihydromonacolin L is the precursor to the cholesterol-lowering drug, lovastatin and its semisynthetic derivative simvastatin (Zocor). The enzyme domains are used repeatedly in a highly programmed fashion to construct the molecule. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Oct. 23, 2009, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. S. M. Ma at University of California at Los Angeles in Los Angeles, and colleagues, was titled, "Complete Reconstitution of a Highly Reducing Iterative Polyketide Synthase." view more
Credit: [Image courtesy of Leah Martin-Visscher and Lynne Sigler University of Alberta; Kings Centre for Visualization of Science (KCVS)]