# CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF CERTAIN ANTIBIOTICS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · 1989 · $224,403

## Abstract

Biosynthesis and chemical synthesis of biologically active
compounds--antibiotics of microbial origin and antiviral, antitumor or
antimicrobial compounds from marine tunicates and sponges--will be studied.

Special attention will be directed toward the biosynthesis of antibiotics
containing a "m-C7N" unit--geldanamycin, streptovaricin, pactamycin,
validamyin--with the goal of identifying intermediates between the known
primary precursors and the intact antibiotics.  We also plan to focus on
intermediates involved in the biosynthesis of the aminocyclitol antibiotics
neomycin and validamycin, as well as on the origins of unusual biosynthetic
units found in the peptide antibiotics berninamycin and emerimicin and in
the acyltetramic acid streptolydigin.  These studies will employ precursors
labeled with radioactive and stable isotopes and extensive applications of
NMR spectroscopy.

As an adjunct to the biosynthetic studies, we plan to use mutant strains of
the producing organisms and chemically prepared mutasynthons (analogs of
6-methylsalicylic acid, m-aminobenzoic acid, deoxystreptamine and neamine,
3-amino-4,7-dihydroxycoumarin and 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid) to prepare
new mutasynthetic antibiotics related to pactamycin, neomycin, novobiocin
and, perhaps, geldanamycin.

We also plan to stress biosynthetic efforts in the area of marine natural
products, continuing our studies of bromotyrosine metabolites from the
sponge Aplysina fistularis and investigating the biosyntheses of
eudistomins, antiviral Beta-carbolines from the tunicate Eudistoma
olivaceum; of didemmnins, antiviral, antitumor and immunosuppressive cyclic
depsipeptides from the tunicate Trididemnum sp.; of ptilocaulin from the
sponge Ptilocaulis gracilis; and of sceptrin from the sponge Agelas
clathrodes.

Finally, we plan to carry out chemical syntheses of the most biologically
promising marine-derived compounds--the didemnins, the eudistomins, and
their analogs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3124074
- **Project number:** 5R01AI001278-33
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
- **SAM.gov UEI:** Y8CWNJRCNN91
- **Principal Investigator:** KENNETH L RINEHART
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1989
- **Award amount:** $224,403
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1974-12-01 → 1989-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3124074

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3124074, CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF CERTAIN ANTIBIOTICS (5R01AI001278-33). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3124074. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*