Resistance to and synthesis of the antibiotic mupirocin.

Mupirocin, a polyketide antibiotic produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens, is used to control the carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on skin and in nasal passages as well as for various skin infections. Low-level resistance to the antibiotic arises by mutation of the mupirocin target, isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase, whereas high-level resistance is due to the presence of an isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase with many similarities to eukaryotic enzymes. Mupirocin biosynthesis is carried out by a combination of type I multifunctional polyketide synthases and tailoring enzymes encoded in a 75 kb gene cluster. Chemical synthesis has also been achieved. This knowledge should allow the synthesis of new and modified antibiotics for the future.