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Zhang MM, Qiao Y, Ang EL, Zhao H. Using natural products for drug discovery: the impact of the genomics era. Expert Opin Drug Discov 2017; 12:475-487. [PMID: 28277838 DOI: 10.1080/17460441.2017.1303478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Evolutionarily selected over billions of years for their interactions with biomolecules, natural products have been and continue to be a major source of pharmaceuticals. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies scaled down their natural product discovery programs in favor of synthetic chemical libraries due to major challenges such as high rediscovery rates, challenging isolation, and low production titers. Propelled by advances in DNA sequencing and synthetic biology technologies, insights into microbial secondary metabolism provided have inspired a number of strategies to address these challenges. Areas covered: This review highlights the importance of genomics and metagenomics in natural product discovery, and provides an overview of the technical and conceptual advances that offer unprecedented access to molecules encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters. Expert opinion: Genomics and metagenomics revealed nature's remarkable biosynthetic potential and her vast chemical inventory that we can now prioritize and systematically mine for novel chemical scaffolds with desirable bioactivities. Coupled with synthetic biology and genome engineering technologies, significant progress has been made in identifying and predicting the chemical output of biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as in optimizing cluster expression in native and heterologous host systems for the production of pharmaceutically relevant metabolites and their derivatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingzi M Zhang
- a Metabolic Engineering Research Laboratory , Science and Engineering Institutes, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) , Singapore , Singapore
| | - Yuan Qiao
- a Metabolic Engineering Research Laboratory , Science and Engineering Institutes, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) , Singapore , Singapore
| | - Ee Lui Ang
- a Metabolic Engineering Research Laboratory , Science and Engineering Institutes, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) , Singapore , Singapore
| | - Huimin Zhao
- a Metabolic Engineering Research Laboratory , Science and Engineering Institutes, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) , Singapore , Singapore.,b Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana , IL , USA
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Rakonjac J, Russel M, Khanum S, Brooke SJ, Rajič M. Filamentous Phage: Structure and Biology. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2017; 1053:1-20. [PMID: 29549632 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-72077-7_1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Ff filamentous phage (fd, M13 and f1) of Escherichia coli have been the workhorse of phage display technology for the past 30 years. Dominance of Ff over other bacteriophage in display technology stems from the titres that are about 100-fold higher than any other known phage, efficacious transformation ensuring large library size and superior stability of the virion at high temperatures, detergents and pH extremes, allowing broad range of biopanning conditions in screening phage display libraries. Due to the excellent understanding of infection and assembly requirements, Ff phage have also been at the core of phage-assisted continual protein evolution strategies (PACE). This chapter will give an overview of the Ff filamentous phage structure and biology, emphasizing those properties of the Ff phage life cycle and virion that are pertinent to phage display applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasna Rakonjac
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. .,Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
| | | | - Sofia Khanum
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Sam J Brooke
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Marina Rajič
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.,Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Gagic D, Ciric M, Wen WX, Ng F, Rakonjac J. Exploring the Secretomes of Microbes and Microbial Communities Using Filamentous Phage Display. Front Microbiol 2016; 7:429. [PMID: 27092113 PMCID: PMC4823517 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2015] [Accepted: 03/17/2016] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Microbial surface and secreted proteins (the secretome) contain a large number of proteins that interact with other microbes, host and/or environment. These proteins are exported by the coordinated activities of the protein secretion machinery present in the cell. A group of bacteriophage, called filamentous phage, have the ability to hijack bacterial protein secretion machinery in order to amplify and assemble via a secretion-like process. This ability has been harnessed in the use of filamentous phage of Escherichia coli in biotechnology applications, including screening large libraries of variants for binding to “bait” of interest, from tissues in vivo to pure proteins or even inorganic substrates. In this review we discuss the roles of secretome proteins in pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria and corresponding secretion pathways. We describe the basics of phage display technology and its variants applied to discovery of bacterial proteins that are implicated in colonization of host tissues and pathogenesis, as well as vaccine candidates through filamentous phage display library screening. Secretome selection aided by next-generation sequence analysis was successfully applied for selective display of the secretome at a microbial community scale, the latter revealing the richness of secretome functions of interest and surprising versatility in filamentous phage display of secretome proteins from large number of Gram-negative as well as Gram-positive bacteria and archaea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dragana Gagic
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey UniversityPalmerston North, New Zealand; Animal Science, Grasslands Research Centre, AgResearch Ltd, Palmerston NorthNew Zealand
| | - Milica Ciric
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey UniversityPalmerston North, New Zealand; Animal Science, Grasslands Research Centre, AgResearch Ltd, Palmerston NorthNew Zealand
| | - Wesley X Wen
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Filomena Ng
- Animal Science, Grasslands Research Centre, AgResearch Ltd, Palmerston North New Zealand
| | - Jasna Rakonjac
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Milshteyn A, Schneider JS, Brady SF. Mining the metabiome: identifying novel natural products from microbial communities. CHEMISTRY & BIOLOGY 2014; 21:1211-23. [PMID: 25237864 PMCID: PMC4171686 DOI: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2014.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 118] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2014] [Revised: 08/06/2014] [Accepted: 08/08/2014] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Microbial-derived natural products provide the foundation for most of the chemotherapeutic arsenal available to contemporary medicine. In the face of a dwindling pipeline of new lead structures identified by traditional culturing techniques and an increasing need for new therapeutics, surveys of microbial biosynthetic diversity across environmental metabiomes have revealed enormous reservoirs of as yet untapped natural products chemistry. In this review, we touch on the historical context of microbial natural product discovery and discuss innovations and technological advances that are facilitating culture-dependent and culture-independent access to new chemistry from environmental microbiomes with the goal of reinvigorating the small molecule therapeutics discovery pipeline. We highlight the successful strategies that have emerged and some of the challenges that must be overcome to enable the development of high-throughput methods for natural product discovery from complex microbial communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandr Milshteyn
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Jessica S Schneider
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Sean F Brady
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
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Charlop-Powers Z, Milshteyn A, Brady SF. Metagenomic small molecule discovery methods. Curr Opin Microbiol 2014; 19:70-75. [PMID: 25000402 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2014.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2014] [Revised: 05/10/2014] [Accepted: 05/28/2014] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Metagenomic approaches to natural product discovery provide the means to harvest bioactive small molecules synthesized by environmental bacteria without the requirement of first culturing these organisms. Advances in sequencing technologies and general metagenomic methods are beginning to provide the tools necessary to unlock the unexplored biosynthetic potential encoded by the genomes of uncultured environmental bacteria. Here, we highlight recent advances in sequence-based and functional-based metagenomic approaches that promise to facilitate antibiotic discovery from diverse environmental microbiomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary Charlop-Powers
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, United States
| | - Aleksandr Milshteyn
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, United States
| | - Sean F Brady
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, United States.
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Abstract
Metagenomics is revolutionizing the field of microbial ecology through techniques that eliminate the prerequisite of culturing. Metagenomic studies of microbial populations in different environments reveal the incredible diversity and adaptive capabilities of these organisms. With the advent of cheaper, high-throughput sequencing technologies, these studies are also producing vast amounts of sequence data. Here, we discuss the different components of a metagenomic study including sample collection, DNA extraction, sequencing, and informatics. We highlight their issues and challenges, and review the solutions that are currently in use. We conclude with examples of metagenomic studies conducted on environments of varying complexities.
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Banik JJ, Brady SF. Recent application of metagenomic approaches toward the discovery of antimicrobials and other bioactive small molecules. Curr Opin Microbiol 2010; 13:603-9. [PMID: 20884282 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2010.08.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2010] [Accepted: 08/27/2010] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Bacteria grown in pure culture have been the starting point for the discovery of many of the antibacterials now in use. Metagenomics, which utilizes culture-independent methods to access the collective genomes of natural bacterial populations, provides a means of exploring the antimicrobials produced by the large collections of bacteria that are known to be present in the environment but remain recalcitrant to culturing. Both novel small molecule antibiotics and new antibacterially active proteins have been identified using metagenomic approaches. The recent application of metagenomics to the discovery of bioactive small molecules, small molecule biosynthetic gene clusters and antibacterially active enzymes is discussed here.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob J Banik
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
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Aziz RK, Breitbart M, Edwards RA. Transposases are the most abundant, most ubiquitous genes in nature. Nucleic Acids Res 2010; 38:4207-17. [PMID: 20215432 PMCID: PMC2910039 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkq140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 206] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Genes, like organisms, struggle for existence, and the most successful genes persist and widely disseminate in nature. The unbiased determination of the most successful genes requires access to sequence data from a wide range of phylogenetic taxa and ecosystems, which has finally become achievable thanks to the deluge of genomic and metagenomic sequences. Here, we analyzed 10 million protein-encoding genes and gene tags in sequenced bacterial, archaeal, eukaryotic and viral genomes and metagenomes, and our analysis demonstrates that genes encoding transposases are the most prevalent genes in nature. The finding that these genes, classically considered as selfish genes, outnumber essential or housekeeping genes suggests that they offer selective advantage to the genomes and ecosystems they inhabit, a hypothesis in agreement with an emerging body of literature. Their mobile nature not only promotes dissemination of transposable elements within and between genomes but also leads to mutations and rearrangements that can accelerate biological diversification and—consequently—evolution. By securing their own replication and dissemination, transposases guarantee to thrive so long as nucleic acid-based life forms exist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramy K Aziz
- Computation Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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