title: Polyketide synthase gene diversity within the microbiome of the sponge Arenosclera brasiliensis, endemic to the Southern Atlantic Ocean.
abstract: Microbes associated with marine sponges are considered important producers of bioactive, structurally unique polyketides. The synthesis of such secondary metabolites involves type I polyketide synthases (PKSs), which are enzymes that reach a maximum complexity degree in bacteria. The Haplosclerida sponge Arenosclera brasiliensis hosts a complex microbiota and is the source of arenosclerins, alkaloids with cytotoxic and antibacterial activity. In the present investigation, we performed high-throughput sequencing of the ketosynthase (KS) amplicon to investigate the diversity of PKS genes present in the metagenome of A. brasiliensis. Almost 4,000 ketosynthase reads were recovered, with about 90% annotated automatically as bacterial. A total of 235 bacterial KS contigs was rigorously assembled from this sequence pool and submitted to phylogenetic analysis. A great diversity of six type I PKS groups has been consistently detected in our phylogenetic reconstructions, including a novel and A. brasiliensis-exclusive group. Our study is the first to reveal the diversity of type I PKS genes in A. brasiliensis as well as the potential of its microbiome to serve as a source of new polyketides.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Amaro E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Trindade-Silva
authors.forename: Cintia P J
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Rua
authors.forename: Bruno G N
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: Ana Carolina Paulo
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.forename: Genivaldo G Z
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Roberto G S
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Berlinck
authors.forename: Fabiano L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D014644:Genetic Variation; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D054892:Metagenome; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D048630:Polyketide Synthases / Q000235:genetics*; D011161:Porifera / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D048630:Polyketide Synthases