FR-900098 is a potent chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of malaria. Here we report the heterologous production of this compound in E. coli by re-constructing the entire biosynthetic pathway using a three plasmid system. Based on this system, whole cell feeding assays in combination with in vitro enzymatic activity assays reveal an unprecedented functional role of nucleotide conjugation and lead to the complete elucidation of the previously unassigned late biosynthetic steps. These studies also suggest a biosynthetic route to a second phosphonate antibiotic, FR-33289. A thorough understanding of the FR-900098 biosynthetic pathway now opens the possibilities for metabolic engineering in E. coli to increase production of the antimalarial antibiotic and combinatorial biosynthesis to generate novel derivatives of FR-900098.