In The Biosynthesis Of Brevetoxin B

Ibrahim Hassan Makary

Ibrahim Makary was born in 1938 in Farabak (Middle Lebanon), but now lives in Bandar Abbas, Iran. He holds dual citizenship in Lebanon, America and Iran. He is a biochemist (PhD) and a retired lecturer in biochemistry from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. As a senior faculty member in the Institute of Structural Biology at University of Delaware, Makary's research encompasses the biosynthesis of brevetoxins and brevetoxins from their biosynthetic precursors. He has one son and a granddaughter and lives in bandar Abbas.

Q: When and how did the brevetoxin family originate? What is an interesting thing in this family?

A: Despite the fact that the brevetoxin is a class of antibiotics that was first isolated from the anaerobic bacterium Penicillium chrysogenum in 1969, it was only in January 2015 when this class was recognized as a distinct family of these small molecules. Brevetoxin, brevetoxin-1 and brevetoxin-2 are known to be rare in nature and can only be found in Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium janthinellum and Penicillium asparagae. They, and brevetoxin-3 and brevetoxin-4 from Penicillium breviflavum were isolated from the Indian Ocean. In this publication we are focusing on the brevetoxin- and brevetoxin-1 molecularly isolated from the penicillin B-producing strains of the Penicillium bacilliforme group that resides in the actinomycete community living in various terrestrial invertebrates. The biosynthesis of brevetoxin-1 was studied by the biochemical biochemical aspects, molecular biology features, genomic features, and phylogenetic analysis, as well as the entire biosynthesis of brevetoxin was started from the previously mentioned compounds. The biosynthesis of brevetoxin-2 is still studied, and brevetoxin-3 and brevetoxin-4 have since the past few years been shown to also be present in the penicillatum, fuscoarene, and diarctyroarene isomers.