scholarly journals Genetic platforms for heterologous expression of microbial natural products

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 1313-1332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Jia Zhang ◽  
Xiaoyu Tang ◽  
Bradley S. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Heterologous Expression ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Genetic Technologies ◽  
Microbial Natural Products

This review covers current genetic technologies for accessing and manipulating natural product biosynthetic gene clusters through heterologous expression.

A Natural Product Chemist's Guide to Unlocking Silent Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett C. Covington ◽  
Fei Xu ◽  
Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Therapeutic Leads ◽  
Microbial Natural Products

Microbial natural products have provided an important source of therapeutic leads and motivated research and innovation in diverse scientific disciplines. In recent years, it has become evident that bacteria harbor a large, hidden reservoir of potential natural products in the form of silent or cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). These can be readily identified in microbial genome sequences but do not give rise to detectable levels of a natural product. Herein, we provide a useful organizational framework for the various methods that have been implemented for interrogating silent BGCs. We divide all available approaches into four categories. The first three are endogenous strategies that utilize the native host in conjunction with classical genetics, chemical genetics, or different culture modalities. The last category comprises expression of the entire BGC in a heterologous host. For each category, we describe the rationale, recent applications, and associated advantages and limitations. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Biochemistry, Volume 90 is June 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals A chromatogram-simplified Streptomyces albus host for heterologous production of natural products

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asif Fazal ◽  
Divya Thankachan ◽  
Ellie Harris ◽  
Ryan F. Seipke
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Heterologous Production ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Streptomyces Albus ◽  
Microbial Natural Products ◽  
Suitable Expression

AbstractCloning natural product biosynthetic gene clusters from cultured or uncultured sources and their subsequent expression by genetically tractable heterologous hosts is an essential strategy for the elucidation and characterisation of novel microbial natural products. The availability of suitable expression hosts is a critical aspect of this workflow. In this work, we mutagenised five endogenous biosynthetic gene clusters from Streptomyces albus S4, which reduced the complexity of chemical extracts generated from the strain and eliminated antifungal and antibacterial bioactivity. We showed that the resulting quintuple mutant can express foreign BGCs by heterologously producing actinorhodin, cinnamycin and prunustatin. We envisage that our strain will be a useful addition to the growing suite of heterologous expression hosts available for exploring microbial secondary metabolism.

scholarly journals A chromatogram-simplified Streptomyces albus host for heterologous production of natural products

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asif Fazal ◽  
Divya Thankachan ◽  
Ellie Harris ◽  
Ryan F. Seipke
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Heterologous Production ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Streptomyces Albus ◽  
Microbial Natural Products ◽  
Suitable Expression

AbstractCloning natural product biosynthetic gene clusters from cultured or uncultured sources and their subsequent expression by genetically tractable heterologous hosts is an essential strategy for the elucidation and characterisation of novel microbial natural products. The availability of suitable expression hosts is a critical aspect of this workflow. In this work, we mutagenised five endogenous biosynthetic gene clusters from Streptomyces albus S4, which reduced the complexity of chemical extracts generated from the strain and eliminated antifungal and antibacterial bioactivity. We showed that the resulting quintuple mutant can express foreign biosynthetic gene clusters by heterologously producing actinorhodin, cinnamycin and prunustatin. We envisage that our strain will be a useful addition to the growing suite of heterologous expression hosts available for exploring microbial secondary metabolism.

scholarly journals Mining metagenomes for natural product biosynthetic gene clusters: unlocking new potential with ultrafast techniques

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiliano Pereira-Flores ◽  
Marnix Medema ◽  
Pier Luigi Buttigieg ◽  
Peter Meinicke ◽  
Frank Oliver Glöckner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Human Microbiome Project ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Cluster ◽  
Metagenomic Data ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Wide Range

Microorganisms produce an immense variety of natural products through the expression of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs): physically clustered genes that encode the enzymes of a specialized metabolic pathway. These natural products cover a wide range of chemical classes (e.g., aminoglycosides, lantibiotics, nonribosomal peptides, oligosaccharides, polyketides, terpenes) that are highly valuable for industrial and medical applications1. Metagenomics, as a culture-independent approach, has greatly enhanced our ability to survey the functional potential of microorganisms and is growing in popularity for the mining of BGCs. However, to effectively exploit metagenomic data to this end, it will be crucial to more efficiently identify these genomic elements in highly complex and ever-increasing volumes of data2. Here, we address this challenge by developing the ultrafast Biosynthetic Gene cluster MEtagenomic eXploration toolbox (BiG-MEx). BiG-MEx rapidly identifies a broad range of BGC protein domains, assess their diversity and novelty, and predicts the abundance profile of natural product BGC classes in metagenomic data. We show the advantages of BiG-MEx compared to standard BGC-mining approaches, and use it to explore the BGC domain and class composition of samples in the TARA Oceans3 and Human Microbiome Project datasets4. In these analyses, we demonstrate BiG-MEx’s applicability to study the distribution, diversity, and ecological roles of BGCs in metagenomic data, and guide the exploration of natural products with clinical applications.

scholarly journals Mining of Cyanobacterial Genomes Indicates That Plasmids Are Involved in the Production of Natural Products

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Popin ◽  
Danillo Alvarenga ◽  
Raquel Castelo-Branco ◽  
David Fewer ◽  
Kaarina Sivonen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Biosynthetic Pathways ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Genes Encoding

Abstract Background Microbial natural products have unique chemical structures and diverse biological activities. Cyanobacteria commonly possess a wide range of biosynthetic gene clusters to produce natural products. Several studies have mapped the distribution of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters in cyanobacterial genomes. However, little attention has been paid to natural product biosynthesis in plasmids. Some genes encoding cyanobacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways are believed to be dispersed by plasmids through horizontal gene transfer. Thus, we examined complete cyanobacterial genomes to assess if plasmids are involved in the production and dissemination of natural products by cyanobacteria.Results The 185 analyzed genomes possessed 1 to 42 gene clusters and an average of 10. In total, 1816 biosynthetic gene clusters were found. Approximately 95% of these clusters were present in chromosomes. The remaining 5% were present in plasmids, from which homologs of the biosynthetic pathways for aeruginosin, anabaenopeptin, ambiguine, cryptophycin, hassallidin, geosmin, and microcystin were manually curated. The cryptophycin pathway was previously described as active while the other gene cluster include all genes for biosynthesis. Approximately 12% of the 424 analyzed cyanobacterial plasmids contained homologs of genes involved in conjugation. Large plasmids, previously named as “chromids”, were also observed to be widespread in cyanobacteria. Sixteen cryptic natural product biosynthetic gene clusters and geosmin biosynthetic gene clusters were located in those mobile plasmids.Conclusion Homologues of genes involved in the production of toxins, protease inhibitors, odorous compounds, antimicrobials, antitumorals, and other unidentified natural products are located in cyanobacterial plasmids. Some of these plasmids are predicted to be conjugative. The present study provides in silico evidence that plasmids are involved in the distribution of natural product biosynthetic pathways in cyanobacteria.

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