BIOSYNTHETIC PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS

Novel recombinant DNA molecule (I) has a sequence corresp. to one or more DNA sequences contd. in a Bgl II fragment of the 54 Rpb episomal element pTii32 from staphylococcus epidermis and codes for at least one protein having EpiB, EpiC, EpiD, EpiP or EpiQ enzymatic activity; or (I) is capable of hybridising to the BglII fragment and codes for at least one protein with the above enzymatic activities. Also claimed are: the protein EpiB, EpiC, EpiD, EpiP or EpiQ in the absence of impurities with which it is normally associated; a fusion protein compising one of EpiB, C, D, P or Q and an auxiliary protein, a fusion protein in which one of the Epi B, C, D, P or Q is fused to an auxiliary protein such that the junction between the Epi protein and the auxiliary protein can be cleaved by an enzyme; and a method of producing a protein with at least one of the structural features of a lantibiotic. In the novel method comprising inserting a DNA sequence coding for a predetermined aminoacid sequence in a vector plasmid such that it is under the control of a regulator promoter, transforming the resulting plasmid vector into a host and cultivating the host so as to express the DNA and isolating the protein, the improvement comprises also transforming the host by a DNA sequence or sequences comprising functionally operable genes coding for EpiB, C, D, P or Q (or an active variant), the genes being expressed during cultivation of the host so that the resulting protein has at least one of the structural features of a lantibiotic.