ena-STUDY-Center for microbial genomics and genetics-03-02-2021-10:45:32:522-533
Profiling Secondary Metabolites from soil bacteria found in diverse biomes of South Africa using sequence-based Metagenomics
Bacteria have traditionally been one of the most productive sources of structurally unique and pharmacologically relevant metabolite. Streptomycin and rifamycins are two of the many such metabolites that have reached the pharmacy.  Recently a new class of calcium-dependent antibiotics, Malacidins with activity against multi-drug resistance pathogens was discovered  in soil bacteria. Secondary metabolites often have multiple- functionality and are species specific. Synthesis of these bacterial secondary metabolites is through two distinct biosynthetic pathways, nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) and polyketide synthase (PKS). Conserved regions within both pathways encompassing either the  NRPS - adenylation (A) domain or the PKS - ketosynthase (KS) domain can be used as  “natural – product sequence taqs” to identify the presence of a metabolic pathway within a bacterial population. South Africa has one of the richest biodiversity in the world and is likely to be a rich reservoir of uncharacterized biologically active small molecules that could demonstrate clinical importance. Especially, now in the era of growing number of multi-drug resistance pathogens were new chemical entities as therapeutic agents are urgently needed
Bacteria have traditionally been one of the most productive sources of structurally unique and pharmacologically relevant metabolite. Streptomycin and rifamycins are two of the many such metabolites that have reached the pharmacy.  Recently a new class of calcium-dependent antibiotics, Malacidins with activity against multi-drug resistance pathogens was discovered  in soil bacteria. Secondary metabolites often have multiple- functionality and are species specific. Synthesis of these bacterial secondary metabolites is through two distinct biosynthetic pathways, nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) and polyketide synthase (PKS). Conserved regions within both pathways encompassing either the  NRPS - adenylation (A) domain or the PKS - ketosynthase (KS) domain can be used as  “natural – product sequence taqs” to identify the presence of a metabolic pathway within a bacterial population. South Africa has one of the richest biodiversity in the world and is likely to be a rich reservoir of uncharacterized biologically active small molecules that could demonstrate clinical importance. Especially, now in the era of growing number of multi-drug resistance pathogens were new chemical entities as therapeutic agents are urgently needed