The molecule is also of interest from a metabolic perspective because it represents a new structural class of antibiotic and suggests a crossover between polyketide and non-ribosomal peptide biosynthetic pathways.

Based on mutant studies, the biosynthetic cluster involved in zwittermicin production has been identified and the pathway has been proposed.

[3] The hybrid synthase used in zwittermicin A production utilizes modified extender units such as hydroxymalonyl-ACP, aminomalonyl-ACP and 2,3-diaminopropionate.

Therefore, many of the genes in the biosynthetic cluster encode for enzymes responsible for the synthesis of these extender units used in the hybrid synthase.

The last step involves a carbomyltransferase enzyme that carbamolates the released molecule giving the final product.