Recent advances in awakening silent biosynthetic gene clusters and linking orphan clusters to natural products in microorganisms.
Secondary metabolites from microorganisms have a broad spectrum of applications, particularly in therapeutics. The growing number of sequenced microbial genomes has revealed a remarkably large number of natural product biosynthetic clusters for which the products are still unknown. These cryptic clusters are potentially a treasure house of medically useful compounds. The recent development of new methodologies has made it possible to begin unlock this treasure house, to discover new natural products and to determine their biosynthesis pathways. This review will highlight some of the most recent strategies to activate silent biosynthetic gene clusters and to elucidate their corresponding products and pathways.
Graduate Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 71710, Taiwan, ROC.
Yi-Ming
YM
Chiang
Shu-Lin
SL
Chang
Berl R
BR
Oakley
Clay C C
CC
Wang
D001688:Biological Products / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D002843:Chromatin; D020868:Gene Silencing; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D005810:Multigene Family; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000378:metabolism
D001688:Biological Products; D002843:Chromatin