Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis

BioPKS Pipeline automates the design of chimeric type I polyketide synthases and enzymatic pathways to synthesize target chemicals, achieving exact designs for 93 of 155 tested molecules and proposing routes for complex natural products.

The paper shows conjugation in Streptomyces leads to large-scale chromosomal transfer, causing genetic diversification of antibiotic gene clusters.

This study identifies the origin of the quinone ring in pleurotin and characterizes a biosynthetic intermediate using genome sequencing and heterologous expression.

The paper characterizes the structure of a putative terminal amidation domain in natural product biosynthesis and identifies its potential catalytic role.

This paper identifies alligamycin A, a novel antifungal compound from Streptomyces iranensis, and demonstrates its potent antifungal activity against clinically relevant fungi.

The paper introduces the Molecules Gateway, a database of 150,000 annotated molecules from Actinomycetes, enabling rapid identification of microbial products and analysis of chemical diversity.

The paper investigates the genomic localization of secondary metabolite gene clusters in Aspergillus and their association with histone modifications, finding a bias for low-synteny regions and differential histone PTM regulation.

The paper identifies a new myxobacterial family, Pendulisporaceae, with unique biosynthetic gene clusters and potential pharmaceutical applications.

The paper discovers a hybrid type I and II polyketide synthase system that produces a novel aromatic polyketide, spirocycline A, with a unique structure and biosynthetic pathway.

The paper establishes a genetic plug-and-play system for expressing and functionalizing polycyclic tetramate macrolactams (PoTeMs) by screening promoters and applying it to modifying enzymes.

The paper introduces the BGC Atlas, a web resource that explores BGC diversity in metagenomes, identifying nearly 1.8 million BGCs and showing RiPPs as the most abundant compound class.

This study identifies cyclo(Pro-Tyr) as a metabolite that disrupts eukaryotic cellular membranes by targeting Pma1 ATPase in microdomains, inducing oxidative stress and membrane fluidity changes in fungi and nematodes.

The paper develops a bioinformatic pipeline to predict bacterial siderophore structures and receptors from genome sequences, revealing significant diversity in pyoverdines and their receptors.

This study uses long-read sequencing and genome assembly to identify terpene synthases and biosynthetic gene clusters in Aspergillus wentii, revealing potential pathways for bioactive molecule production.

This study identifies trans-δ-viniferins as promising anti-infective scaffolds against Mycobacterium marinum using a Dictyostelium discoideum infection model and natural product derivatives.

This study examines BGC diversity in native and introduced populations of Suillus luteus, finding higher diversity in native populations and identifying unique and conserved BGCs.

The paper analyzes biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) across fungal lifestyles to determine their evolutionary and ecological patterns.

The paper identifies and expresses two functional 4-O-dimethylallyl-L-tyrosine synthases from lichen-forming fungi, revealing their substrate specificity and potential for biocatalytic applications.

This study identifies five marine actinomycete strains with antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities from coastal sediments.

This paper identifies anthraquinones in Thermomyces dupontii as regulators of iron excretion, sterol-mediated endocytosis, and iron storage under cold stress.

This study identifies 3,7-dihydroxytropolone as a new antimicrobial compound produced by Pseudomonas, revealing its biosynthesis pathway and ecological relevance.

This study identifies and characterizes XrdM, an amide methyltransferase involved in dithiolopyrrolone antibiotic biosynthesis, and shows it is distinct from DtpM in structure and function.

The paper investigates intermodular communication in polyketide biosynthesis using cryo-EM and crosslinking, revealing structural insights for designing hybrid synthases.

This study identifies SidF as a bifunctional acyltransferase essential for both FusTS and FchTS siderophore biosynthesis in Aspergillus fumigatus, revealing its role in virulence and iron acquisition.

The paper identifies giant polyketide synthase genes in Prymnesium parvum that biosynthesize large polyether toxins, resolving a long-standing biosynthetic mystery.

This paper demonstrates the in vivo synthesis of complex arthrocolins in E. coli using oxygen-mediated free radical reactions triggered by phenols, and identifies novel bioactive compounds.

This study investigates how polyketide synthase thioesterase domains direct substrate nucleophiles for macrolactone formation by analyzing structural and functional properties of modified TEs.

This study evaluates ChatGPT's ability to extract natural product bioactivity and biosynthesis data from scientific publications, finding it effective for identifying natural product discovery and bioactivity but less accurate for extracting accession numbers.

This study identifies oxydifficidin as a potent antibiotic against Neisseria gonorrhoeae, effective against drug-resistant strains, due to DedA-mediated uptake and sensitivity to ribosomal protein RplL.

This paper characterizes ArsL, a noncanonical radical SAM enzyme involved in arsinothricin biosynthesis, showing it cleaves SAM to generate an ACP radical and reconstitutes the pathway in vitro.