The thioesterase domain catalyzes chain termination and release of the mature lipopeptide.The molecular engineering of daptomycin, the only marketed acidic lipopeptide antibiotic to date (Figure 8), has seen many advances since its inception into clinical medicine in 2003. It is an attractive target for combinatorial biosynthesis for many reasons: second generation derivatives are currently in the clinic for development;Streptomyces roseosporus, the producer organism of daptomycin, is amenable to genetic manipulation; the daptomycin biosynthetic gene cluster has been cloned, sequenced, and expressed in S. lividans; the lipopeptide biosynthetic machinery has the potential to be interrupted by variations of natural precursors, as well as precursor-directed biosynthesis, gene deletion, genetic exchange, and module exchange; the molecular engineering tools have been developed to facilitate the expression of the three individual NRPS genes from three different sites in the chromosome, using ermEp* for expression of two genes from ectopic loci; other lipopeptide gene clusters, both related and unrelated to daptomycin, have been cloned and sequenced, thus providing genes and modules to allow the generation of hybrid molecules; derivatives can be afforded via chemoenzymatic synthesis; and lastly, efforts in medicinal chemistry are able to further modify these products of molecular engineering.New derivatives of daptomycin (Figure 9) were originally generated by exchanging the third NRPS subunit (dptD) with the terminal subunits from the A54145 (Factor B1) or calcium-dependent antibiotic pathways to create molecules containing Trp13, Ile13, or Val13. dptD is responsible for incorporating the penultimate amino acid, 3-methyl-glutamic acid (3mGlu12), and the last amino acid, Kyn13, into the chain.
The domain organization in such modules is C-A-T-E.The first module has a three-domain C-A-T organization; these often occur in assembly lines that make N-acylated peptides. The first C domain catalyzes N-acylation of the initiating amino acid (tryptophan) while it is installed on T.  An adenylating enzyme (Ad) catalyzes the condensation of decanoic acid and the N-terminal tryptophan, which incorporates decanoic acid into the growing peptide (Figure 3). The genes responsible for this coupling event are dptE and dptF, which are located upstream of dptA, the first gene of the Daptomycin NRPS biosynthetic gene cluster. Once the coupling of decanoic acid to the N-terminal tryptophan residue occurs, the condensation of amino acids begins, catalyzed by the NRPS.The first five modules of the NRPS are encoded by the dptA gene and catalyze the condensation of L-tryptophan, D-asparagine, L-aspartate, L-threonine, and glycine, respectively (Figure 4). Modules 6–11, which catalyze the condensation of L-ornithine, L-aspartate, D-alanine, L-aspartate, glycine, and D-serine are encoded for the dptBC gene (Figure 5). dptD catalyzes the incorporation of two nonproteinogenic amino acids, L-3-methylglutamic acid (mGlu) and Kyn, which is only known thus far to daptomycin, into the growing peptide (Figure 6). Elongation by these NRPS modules ultimately leads to macrocyclization and release in which an α-amino group, namely threonine, acts as an internal nucleophile during cyclization to yield the 10-amino-acid ring (Figure 6). The termination module in the NRPS assembly line has a C-A-T-TE organization.