Menaquinone is an essential cofactor in the electron-transfer pathway for bacteria. Menaquinone is biosynthesized from chorismate using either the well-known canonical pathway established by pioneering studies in model microorganisms or the futalosine pathway, which we discovered in Streptomyces. Because Helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach cancer, uses the futalosine pathway and most beneficial intestinal bacteria including lactobacilli use the canonical pathway, the futalosine pathway will be a great target to develop antibiotics specific for H. pylori. Here, we searched for such compounds from metabolites produced by actinomycetes and identified pulvomycin from culture broth of Streptomyces sp. K18-0194 as a specific inhibitor of the futalosine pathway.

甲基萘醌是细菌电子转移途径中必不可少的辅助因子。甲萘醌是使用由模型微生物开创性研究建立的众所周知的经典途径或我们在链霉菌中发现的五氟苯磺酸途径从分支酸生物合成的。由于导致胃癌的幽门螺杆菌使用futalosine途径，而包括乳酸杆菌在内的大多数肠道有益细菌使用经典途径，因此futalosine途径将成为开发针对幽门螺杆菌的抗生素的重要目标。在这里，我们从放线菌产生的代谢物中寻找此类化合物，并从链霉菌的培养液中鉴定出普瓦霉素sp. K18-0194 作为 futalosine 途径的特异性抑制剂。