Regio‐ and Stereoselective Oxidative Phenol Coupling in Aspergillus niger

Piecing it together : Aspergillus niger produces kotanin (see structure) by dimerization of the monomeric, polyketide‐synthase‐derived (PKS) 7‐demethylsiderin. A combined approach, comprising bioinformatics and gene‐deletion experiments, identified the biosynthetic cluster responsible for kotanin production. Homology modeling and substrate docking provide a rationale for the regio‐ and stereoselective phenol coupling reaction.