The Botrytis cinerea type III polyketide synthase shows unprecedented high catalytic efficiency toward long chain acyl-CoAs

BPKS from Botrytis cinerea is a novel type III polyketide synthase that accepts C ₄-C ₁₈ aliphatic acyl-CoAs and benzoyl-CoA as the starters to form pyrones, resorcylic acids and resorcinols through sequential condensation with malonyl-CoA. The catalytic efficiency (k _cat/K _m) of BPKS was 2.8 × 10 ⁵ s ^-1 M ^-1 for palmitoyl-CoA, the highest ever reported. Substrate docking analyses addressed the unique features of BPKS such as its high activity and high specificity toward long chain acyl-CoAs.