Abstract: Novel tailor-made artificial non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) for non-ribosomal synthesis and/or modification of peptides of a predetermined length and composition and/or for modification of individual amino acids are described. The fusion of building units of said peptide synthetases in particular linker regions makes it possible to specifically prepare by means of “modular molecule construction kits” NRPSs which are capable of synthesizing peptides of a desired structure.

Abstract: The present invention relates to novel depsipeptide compounds. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions of these compounds and methods of using these compounds as antibacterial compounds. The invention also relates to methods of producing these novel depsipeptide compounds and intermediates used in producing these compounds.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a new, microbiological, method for the production of &agr;-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine (Asp-Phe) from the substrates L-aspartic acid (L-Asp) and L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) wherein the substrates are contacted, in the presence of ATP, with a non-ribosomal dipeptide synthetase comprising two minimal modules connected by one condensation domain wherein the N- resp. C-terminal modules are recognizing L-Asp and L-Phe, respectively, and the latter module is covalently bound at its N-terminal end to the condensation domain, and wherein each of these minimal modules is composed of an adenylation domain and a 4′-phosphopantetheinyl cofactor containing thiolation domain, and that the Asp-Phe formed is recovered. The present invention also relates to novel DNA fragments or combination of DNA fragments encoding a new Asp-Phe dipeptide synthetase, micro-organisms containing such DNA fragments, as well as to the new Asp-Phe dipeptide synthetases itself.