Antimicrobial nucleoside antibiotics targeting cell wall assembly: recent advances in structure-function studies and nucleoside biosynthesis

The quest for new antibiotics, especially those with activity against Gram-negative bacteria, is urgent; however, very few new antibiotics have been marketed in the last 40 years, with this limited number falling into only four new structural classes. Several nucleoside natural product antibiotics target bacterial translocase MraY, involved in the lipid-linked cycle of peptidoglycan biosynthesis, and fungal chitin synthase. Biosynthetic studies on the nikkomycin, caprazamycin and pacidamycin/mureidomycin families are also reviewed.