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Review
. 2010 Apr;8(4):281-9.
doi: 10.1038/nrmicro2278. Epub 2010 Mar 1.

Resistance to and synthesis of the antibiotic mupirocin

Christopher M Thomas  1 , Joanne Hothersall, Christine L Willis, Thomas J Simpson
Affiliations
Review

Resistance to and synthesis of the antibiotic mupirocin

Christopher M Thomas et al. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2010 Apr.

Abstract

Mupirocin, a polyketide antibiotic produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens, is used to control the carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on skin and in nasal passages as well as for various skin infections. Low-level resistance to the antibiotic arises by mutation of the mupirocin target, isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase, whereas high-level resistance is due to the presence of an isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase with many similarities to eukaryotic enzymes. Mupirocin biosynthesis is carried out by a combination of type I multifunctional polyketide synthases and tailoring enzymes encoded in a 75 kb gene cluster. Chemical synthesis has also been achieved. This knowledge should allow the synthesis of new and modified antibiotics for the future.

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References

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