Iron is an essential element for the survival and proliferation of organisms.

[2][3] Since the discovery of ferrichrome in 1952,[4][5] the ferrichrome family of siderophores contains at least 20 structurally distinct members of cyclic hexapeptides that chelate ferric iron via an octahedral coordination geometry through the oxygen atoms of the hydroxyl and the acyl groups of the three ornithine residues.

[6] Ferrichrome A was found as one of the two siderophores produced by the biotrophic basidiomycete Ustilago maydis during its saprotrophic growth phase.

The next step involves the conversion of HMG-CoA to methyl glutaconyl-CoA via enoyl-CoA hydratase (Fer4).

Cyclization of three methylglutaconyl hydroxy ornithine with a glycine and two serine amino acids via NRPS Fer3 yields ferrichrome A.