Next, researchers examined the structure of TAS1 and found that it is a hybrid enzyme containing an NRPS region followed by a PKS region. "This was very surprising," explains Motoyama. "It was assumed because of TeA's structure that it would be synthesized by a PKS-NRPS hybrid enzyme. In fact, the order of these regions was totally reversed!" While NRPS-PKS hybrid enzymes have been found in bacteria, TAS1 is the first fungal enzyme for a secondary metabolite to be discovered with an NRPS-PKS structure.