title: Prospecting for new bacterial metabolites: a glossary of approaches for inducing, activating and upregulating the biosynthesis of bacterial cryptic or silent natural products.
abstract: Covering: up to 2015. Over the centuries, microbial secondary metabolites have played a central role in the treatment of human diseases and have revolutionised the pharmaceutical industry. With the increasing number of sequenced microbial genomes revealing a plethora of novel biosynthetic genes, natural product drug discovery is entering an exciting second golden age. Here, we provide a concise overview as an introductory guide to the main methods employed to unlock or up-regulate these so called 'cryptic', 'silent' and 'orphan' gene clusters, and increase the production of the encoded natural product. With a predominant focus on bacterial natural products we will discuss the importance of the bioinformatics approach for genome mining, the use of first different and simple culturing techniques and then the application of genetic engineering to unlock the microbial treasure trove.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9ST Scotland, UK. rjmg@st-andrews.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Joseph Scott
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Zarins-Tutt
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9ST Scotland, UK. rjmg@st-andrews.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tania Triscari
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Barberi
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9ST Scotland, UK. rjmg@st-andrews.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Aquapharm Biodiscovery Ltd., European Centre for Marine Biotechnology, Dunstaffnage, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA UK. andrew@jellagen.co.uk.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mearns-Spragg
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Lixin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Frederick National Laboratories for Cancer Research, Natural Products Branch, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9ST Scotland, UK. rjmg@st-andrews.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Rebecca Jane Miriam
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Goss
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry*; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D004345:Drug Industry; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006801:Humans; D015394:Molecular Structure; D005810:Multigene Family
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products