Reinvigorating natural product combinatorial biosynthesis with synthetic biology.
Natural products continue to play a pivotal role in drug-discovery efforts and in the understanding if human health. The ability to extend nature's chemistry through combinatorial biosynthesis--altering functional groups, regiochemistry and scaffold backbones through the manipulation of biosynthetic enzymes--offers unique opportunities to create natural product analogs. Incorporating emerging synthetic biology techniques has the potential to further accelerate the refinement of combinatorial biosynthesis as a robust platform for the diversification of natural chemical drug leads. Two decades after the field originated, we discuss the current limitations, the realities and the state of the art of combinatorial biosynthesis, including the engineering of substrate specificity of biosynthetic enzymes and the development of heterologous expression systems for biosynthetic pathways. We also propose a new perspective for the combinatorial biosynthesis of natural products that could reinvigorate drug discovery by using synthetic biology in combination with synthetic chemistry.
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Eunji
E
Kim
1] Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA. [2] Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Bradley S
BS
Moore
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Yeo Joon
YJ
Yoon
D001688:Biological Products / Q000378:metabolism*; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D055808:Drug Discovery; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D015202:Protein Engineering; D016930:Saccharopolyspora / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*
D001688:Biological Products