Actinorhodin is a benzoisochromane

quinone The quinones are a class of organic compounds that are formally "derived from aromatic compounds benzene.html" ;"title="uch as benzene">uch as benzene or naphthalene] by conversion of an even number of –CH= groups into –C(=O)– groups with ...

polyketide In organic chemistry, polyketides are a class of natural products derived from a Precursor (chemistry), precursor molecule consisting of a Polymer backbone, chain of alternating ketone (, or Carbonyl reduction, its reduced forms) and Methylene gro ...

antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...

produced by ''

Streptomyces coelicolor ''Streptomyces albidoflavus'' is a bacterium species from the genus of ''Streptomyces'' which has been isolated from soil from Poland. ''Streptomyces albidoflavus'' produces dibutyl phthalate and streptothricins. Small noncoding RNA Bacteri ...

''. The

gene cluster A gene cluster is a group of two or more genes found within an organism's DNA that encode similar peptide, polypeptides or proteins which collectively share a generalized function and are often located within a few thousand base pairs of each othe ...

responsible for actinorhodin production contains the biosynthetic enzymes and genes responsible for export of the antibiotic. The antibiotic also has the effect of being a

pH indicator A pH indicator is a halochromism, halochromic chemical compound added in small amounts to a Solution (chemistry), solution so the pH (acidity or Base (chemistry), basicity) of the solution can be determined visually or spectroscopically by chang ...

due to its pH-dependent color change. It is a product of a Type II polyketide synthase biosynthetic pathway.

References

Hydroxyarenes Antibiotics Acetate esters Polyketides 3-Hydroxypropenals within hydroxyquinones {{antibiotic-stub