Directed Biosynthesis of Avermectin Derivatives

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的最终目标是开发一种生物合成途径，从天然产物阿维菌素中生产杀虫剂阿维菌素。埃维菌素是一种广谱杀虫剂，对环境影响小，但由于目前化学生产过程成本高而未被广泛使用。一种更有效的生物合成过程将降低这种化合物的成本，增加埃维菌素作为传统化学杀虫剂的环境兼容替代品的使用。这一过程的成功发展将引导生物合成路线的定向设计，以用于制药、农业和其他应用的新的和现有的天然产品衍生物。拟议的研究项目还可能产生具有新的或改变的生物活性的新型阿维菌素衍生物，用于杀虫、抗寄生虫或其他用途。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a biosynthetic route to produce the insecticide emamectin from the natural product avermectin. Emamectin is a broad spectrum insecticide with low environmental impact that is not widely used due to the high cost of the current chemical production process. A more efficient biosynthetic process would lower the cost of this compound, increasing the use of emamectin as an environmentally compatible alternative to traditional chemical insecticides. Successful development of this process will lead the way to directed design of biosynthetic routes to new and existing natural product derivatives for pharmaceutical, agricultural and other applications. The proposed research project may also generate novel avermectin derivatives with new or altered bioactivities for insecticidal, antiparasitic or other uses.