Chemical analysis of fermentation products from two Australian Streptomyces isolates yielded all four known and twelve new examples of the rare reveromycin class of polyketide spiroketals, including hemi-succinates, hemi-fumarates and hemi-furanoates. Reveromycins were identified with the aid of HPLC-DAD-MS and HPLC-DAD-SPE-NMR methodology, and structures were assigned by detailed spectroscopic analysis. The structural and mechanistic requirements for an unprecedented hemi-succinate : ketal-succinyl equilibrium were defined and provided a basis for proposing that reveromycin 4'-methyl esters and 5,6-spiroketals were artifacts. A plausible reveromycin polyketide biosynthesis is proposed, requiring a 2-methylsuccinyl-CoA starter unit, with flexible incorporation of a C(6-8) polyketide chain extension and diacid esterification units. Structure activity relationship investigations by co-metabolites were used to assess the anticancer, antibacterial and antifungal properties of reveromycins.