Prof. Liangcheng Du from University of Nebraska-Lincoln was invited by Enzyme Engineering Group to attend the QIBEBT International Expert Forum on June 26th. Prof. Du presented his research entitled as “Antibiotics from Underexplored Sources and Mycotoxins from Food-borne Molds --- Molecular Mechanisms for Biosynthesis and Metabolic Engineering”.

In his presentation, he talked about the advances of PKS/NRPS biosynthetic pathway of antibiotics in detail. Specifically, Prof. Du introduced the biosynthetic pathway of the antifungal natural product - HSAF, which is a unique antibiotic produced by Lysobacter to use a single PKS to generate two different polyketide chains. Then, he introduced the NRPS system using the lipopeptide antibiotic WAP as an example. Finally, Prof. Du demonstrated his representative studies on fumonisin, an important food-borne toxin biosynthesized by Fusarium verticillioides.

Following his talk, the audience from Shandong University, China Ocean University, Nanjing Agriculture University, etc. had a hot discussion with Prof. Du regarding the PKS/NRPS biosynthesis of antibiotics. He also gave his suggestions on scientific life, idea generation, and career development to graduate students of QIBEBT.