@article {1170236,
	title = {Selvamicin, an atypical antifungal polyene from two alternative genomic contexts},
	journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A},
	volume = {113},
	number = {46},
	year = {2016},
	month = {2016 11 15},
	pages = {12940-12945},
	abstract = {The bacteria harbored by fungus-growing ants produce a variety of small molecules that help maintain a complex multilateral symbiosis. In a survey of antifungal compounds from these bacteria, we discovered selvamicin, an unusual antifungal polyene macrolide, in bacterial isolates from two neighboring ant nests. Selvamicin resembles the clinically important antifungals nystatin A and amphotericin B, but it has several distinctive structural features: a noncationic 6-deoxymannose sugar at the canonical glycosylation site and a second sugar, an unusual 4-O-methyldigitoxose, at the opposite end of selvamicin{\textquoteright}s shortened polyene macrolide. It also lacks some of the pharmacokinetic liabilities of the clinical agents and appears to have a different target. Whole genome sequencing revealed the putative type I polyketide gene cluster responsible for selvamicin{\textquoteright}s biosynthesis including a subcluster of genes consistent with selvamicin{\textquoteright}s 4-O-methyldigitoxose sugar. Although the selvamicin biosynthetic cluster is virtually identical in both bacterial producers, in one it is on the chromosome, in the other it is on a plasmid. These alternative genomic contexts illustrate the biosynthetic gene cluster mobility that underlies the diversity and distribution of chemical defenses by the specialized bacteria in this multilateral symbiosis.},
	keywords = {Actinobacteria, Animals, Antifungal Agents, Ants, Candida albicans, Gene Transfer, Horizontal, Genome, Bacterial, Genomics, Glycosylation, Macrolides, Multigene Family, Plasmids, Polyenes},
	issn = {1091-6490},
	doi = {10.1073/pnas.1613285113},
	author = {Van Arnam, Ethan B and Ruzzini, Antonio C and Sit, Clarissa S and Horn, Heidi and Pinto-Tom{\'a}s, Adri{\'a}n A and Currie, Cameron R and Clardy, Jon}
}
