Nucleoside Natural Product Antibiotics Targetting Microbial Cell Wall Biosynthesis

Abstract

The nucleoside antibiotics are a group of natural product antibiotics with activity against Gram-negative bacteria that are based upon the nucleoside uridine, which were first identified in the 1970s, and for which new members have been recently discovered. The nucleoside antibacterials primarily target translocase MraY on the bacterial peptidoglycan biosynthetic pathway, and a second group of nucleoside antifungal natural products target chitin synthase involved in fungal cell wall synthesis. This chapter reviews the structures and structure–activity studies in each group of antibiotics, describes studies on the biosynthesis of each class, and discusses prospects for the development of novel bioactive nucleosides via chemical synthesis and engineered biosynthesis.