text: Teicoplanin refers to a complex of related natural products isolated from the fermentation broth of a strain of Actinoplanes teichomyceticus, consisting of a group of five structures.  These structures possess a common aglycone, or core, consisting of seven amino acids bound by peptide and ether bonds to form a four-ring system.  These five structures differ by the identity of the fatty acyl side-chain attached to the sugar.  The origin of these seven amino acids in the biosynthesis of teicoplanin was studied by 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance. The studies indicate amino acids 4-Hpg, 3-Cl-Tyr, and 3-chloro-β-hydroxytyrosine are derived from tyrosine, and the amino acid 3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (3,5-Dpg) is derived from acetate. Teicoplanin contains 6 non-proteinogenic amino acids and three sugar moieties, N-acyl-β-D-glucosamine, N-acetyl-β-D-glucosamine, and D-mannose.
  Gene cluster
  The study of the genetic cluster encoding the biosynthesis of teicoplanin identified 49 putative open reading frames (ORFs) involved in the compound's biosynthesis, export, resistance, and regulation.  Thirty-five of these ORFs are similar to those found in other glycopeptide gene clusters. The function of each of these genes is described by  Li and co-workers. A summary of the gene layout and purpose is shown below.
  Gene layout.  The genes are numbered.  The letters L and R designate transcriptional direction.  The presence of the * symbol means a gene is found after NRPs, which are represented by A, B, C, and D.  Based on the figure from: Li, T-L.; Huang, F.; Haydock, S. F.; Mironenko, T.; Leadlay, P. F.; Spencer, J. B. Chemistry & Biology. 2004, 11, p. 109.
  [11-L] [10-L] [9-R] [8-R] [7-R] [6-R] [5-R] [4-L][3-L] [2-L] [1-R]
  [A-R] [B-R] [C-R]
  [D-R] [1*-R] [2*-R] [3*-R] [4*-R]
  [5*-R] [6*-R] [7*-R] [8*-R] [9*-R] [10*-R] [11*-R] [12*-R] [13*-R]
  [14*-R] [15*-R] [16*-R] [17*-R] [18*-R] [19*-R] [20*-R] [21*-R] [22*-R] [23*-R] [24*-R]
  [25*-L] [26*-L] [27*-R] [28*-R] [29*-R] [30*-R][31*-R] [32*-L] [33*-L] [34*-R]