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Kifle BA, Sime AM, Gemeda MT, Woldesemayat AA. Shotgun metagenomic insights into secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters reveal taxonomic and functional profiles of microbiomes in natural farmland soil. Sci Rep 2024; 14:15096. [PMID: 38956049 PMCID: PMC11220033 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63254-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/27/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide problem that imposes a devastating effect on developing countries and requires immediate interventions. Initially, most of the antibiotic drugs were identified by culturing soil microbes. However, this method is prone to discovering the same antibiotics repeatedly. The present study employed a shotgun metagenomics approach to investigate the taxonomic diversity, functional potential, and biosynthetic capacity of microbiomes from two natural agricultural farmlands located in Bekeka and Welmera Choke Kebelle in Ethiopia for the first time. Analysis of the small subunit rRNA revealed bacterial domain accounting for 83.33% and 87.24% in the two selected natural farmlands. Additionally, the analysis showed the dominance of Proteobacteria representing 27.27% and 28.79% followed by Actinobacteria making up 12.73% and 13.64% of the phyla composition. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the presence of unassigned bacteria in the studied samples. The metagenome functional analysis showed 176,961 and 104, 636 number of protein-coding sequences (pCDS) from the two samples found a match with 172,655 and 102, 275 numbers of InterPro entries, respectively. The Genome ontology annotation suggests the presence of 5517 and 3293 pCDS assigned to the "biosynthesis process". Numerous Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes modules (KEGG modules) involved in the biosynthesis of terpenoids and polyketides were identified. Furthermore, both known and novel Biosynthetic gene clusters, responsible for the production of secondary metabolites, such as polyketide synthases, non-ribosomal peptide synthetase, ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (Ripp), and Terpene, were discovered. Generally, from the results it can be concluded that the microbiomes in the selected sampling sites have a hidden functional potential for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Overall, this study can serve as a strong preliminary step in the long journey of bringing new antibiotics to the market.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bezayit Amare Kifle
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Amsale Melkamu Sime
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Mesfin Tafesse Gemeda
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Adugna Abdi Woldesemayat
- Department of Biotechnology, College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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Medeiros W, Hidalgo K, Leão T, de Carvalho LM, Ziemert N, Oliveira V. Unlocking the biosynthetic potential and taxonomy of the Antarctic microbiome along temporal and spatial gradients. Microbiol Spectr 2024; 12:e0024424. [PMID: 38747631 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00244-24] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/19/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Extreme environments, such as Antarctica, select microbial communities that display a range of evolutionary strategies to survive and thrive under harsh environmental conditions. These include a diversity of specialized metabolites, which have the potential to be a source for new natural product discovery. Efforts using (meta)genome mining approaches to identify and understand biosynthetic gene clusters in Antarctica are still scarce, and the extent of their diversity and distribution patterns in the environment have yet to be discovered. Herein, we investigated the biosynthetic gene diversity of the biofilm microbial community of Whalers Bay, Deception Island, in the Antarctic Peninsula and revealed its distribution patterns along spatial and temporal gradients by applying metagenome mining approaches and multivariable analysis. The results showed that the Whalers Bay microbial community harbors a great diversity of biosynthetic gene clusters distributed into seven classes, with terpene being the most abundant. The phyla Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota were the most abundant in the microbial community and contributed significantly to the biosynthetic gene abundances in Whalers Bay. Furthermore, the results highlighted a significant correlation between the distribution of biosynthetic genes and taxonomic diversity, emphasizing the intricate interplay between microbial taxonomy and their potential for specialized metabolite production.IMPORTANCEThis research on antarctic microbial biosynthetic diversity in Whalers Bay, Deception Island, unveils the hidden potential of extreme environments for natural product discovery. By employing metagenomic techniques, the research highlights the extensive diversity of biosynthetic gene clusters and identifies key microbial phyla, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota, as significant contributors. The correlation between taxonomic diversity and biosynthetic gene distribution underscores the intricate interplay governing specialized metabolite production. These findings are crucial for understanding microbial adaptation in extreme environments and hold significant implications for bioprospecting initiatives. The study opens avenues for discovering novel bioactive compounds with potential applications in medicine and industry, emphasizing the importance of preserving and exploring these polyextreme ecosystems to advance biotechnological and pharmaceutical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Medeiros
- Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology, and Agriculture (CPQBA), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil
- Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology, and Infection Medicine Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Kelly Hidalgo
- Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology, and Agriculture (CPQBA), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Tiago Leão
- Chemistry Institute, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Araraquara, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Lucas Miguel de Carvalho
- Center for Computing in Engineering and Sciences, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Nadine Ziemert
- Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology, and Infection Medicine Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Valeria Oliveira
- Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology, and Agriculture (CPQBA), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil
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3
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Zhang Z, Zhang L, Zhang L, Chu H, Zhou J, Ju F. Diversity and distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters in agricultural soil microbiomes. mSystems 2024; 9:e0126323. [PMID: 38470142 PMCID: PMC11019929 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01263-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Bacterial secondary metabolites serve as an important source of molecules for drug discovery. They also play an important function in mediating the interactions of microbial producers with their living environment and surrounding organisms. However, little is known about the genetic novelty, distribution, and community-level impacts of soil bacterial biosynthetic potential on a large geographic scale. Here, we constructed the first catalog of 11,149 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from agricultural soils across China and unearthed hidden biosynthetic potential for new natural product discovery from the not-yet-cultivated soil bacteria. Notably, we revealed soil pH as the strongest environmental driver of BGC biogeography and predicted that soil acidification and global climate change could damage the biosynthetic potential of the soil microbiome. The co-occurrence network of bacterial genomes revealed two BGC-rich species, i.e., Nocardia niigatensis from Actinobacteriota and PSRF01 from Acidobacteriota, as the module hub and connector, respectively, indicating their keystone positions in the soil microbial communities. We also uncovered a dominant role of BGC-inferred biotic interactions over environmental drivers in structuring the soil microbiome. Overall, this study achieved novel insights into the BGC landscape in agricultural soils of China, substantially expanding our understanding of the diversity and novelty of bacterial secondary metabolism and the potential role of secondary metabolites in microbiota assembly.IMPORTANCEBacterial secondary metabolites not only serve as the foundation for numerous therapeutics (e.g., antibiotics and anticancer drugs), but they also play critical ecological roles in mediating microbial interactions (e.g., competition and communication). However, our knowledge of bacterial secondary metabolism is limited to only a small fraction of cultured strains, thus restricting our comprehensive understanding of their diversity, novelty, and potential ecological roles in soil ecosystems. Here, we used culture-independent metagenomics to explore biosynthetic potentials in agricultural soils of China. Our analyses revealed a high degree of genetic diversity and novelty within biosynthetic gene clusters in agricultural soil environments, offering valuable insights for biochemists seeking to synthesize novel bioactive products. Furthermore, we uncovered the pivotal role of BGC-rich species in microbial communities and the significant relationship between BGC richness and microbial phylogenetic turnover. This information emphasizes the importance of biosynthetic potential in the assembly of microbial communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiguo Zhang
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources Research of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Center of Synthetic Biology and Integrated Bioengineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Lu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources Research of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Center of Synthetic Biology and Integrated Bioengineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Lihan Zhang
- Institute of Natural Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Precise Synthesis of Functional Molecules of Zhejiang Province, School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Haiyan Chu
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Feng Ju
- Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources Research of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Center of Synthetic Biology and Integrated Bioengineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Varliero G, Lebre PH, Adams B, Chown SL, Convey P, Dennis PG, Fan D, Ferrari B, Frey B, Hogg ID, Hopkins DW, Kong W, Makhalanyane T, Matcher G, Newsham KK, Stevens MI, Weigh KV, Cowan DA. Biogeographic survey of soil bacterial communities across Antarctica. MICROBIOME 2024; 12:9. [PMID: 38212738 PMCID: PMC10785390 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-023-01719-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Antarctica and its unique biodiversity are increasingly at risk from the effects of global climate change and other human influences. A significant recent element underpinning strategies for Antarctic conservation has been the development of a system of Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions (ACBRs). The datasets supporting this classification are, however, dominated by eukaryotic taxa, with contributions from the bacterial domain restricted to Actinomycetota and Cyanobacteriota. Nevertheless, the ice-free areas of the Antarctic continent and the sub-Antarctic islands are dominated in terms of diversity by bacteria. Our study aims to generate a comprehensive phylogenetic dataset of Antarctic bacteria with wide geographical coverage on the continent and sub-Antarctic islands, to investigate whether bacterial diversity and distribution is reflected in the current ACBRs. RESULTS Soil bacterial diversity and community composition did not fully conform with the ACBR classification. Although 19% of the variability was explained by this classification, the largest differences in bacterial community composition were between the broader continental and maritime Antarctic regions, where a degree of structural overlapping within continental and maritime bacterial communities was apparent, not fully reflecting the division into separate ACBRs. Strong divergence in soil bacterial community composition was also apparent between the Antarctic/sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic mainland. Bacterial communities were partially shaped by bioclimatic conditions, with 28% of dominant genera showing habitat preferences connected to at least one of the bioclimatic variables included in our analyses. These genera were also reported as indicator taxa for the ACBRs. CONCLUSIONS Overall, our data indicate that the current ACBR subdivision of the Antarctic continent does not fully reflect bacterial distribution and diversity in Antarctica. We observed considerable overlap in the structure of soil bacterial communities within the maritime Antarctic region and within the continental Antarctic region. Our results also suggest that bacterial communities might be impacted by regional climatic and other environmental changes. The dataset developed in this study provides a comprehensive baseline that will provide a valuable tool for biodiversity conservation efforts on the continent. Further studies are clearly required, and we emphasize the need for more extensive campaigns to systematically sample and characterize Antarctic and sub-Antarctic soil microbial communities. Video Abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gilda Varliero
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
- Rhizosphere Processes Group, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Pedro H Lebre
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
| | - Byron Adams
- Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, USA
- Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, USA
| | - Steven L Chown
- Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VA, 3800, Australia
| | - Peter Convey
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK
- Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa
- Biodiversity of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems (BASE), Santiago, Chile
| | - Paul G Dennis
- School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Dandan Fan
- State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Belinda Ferrari
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
| | - Beat Frey
- Rhizosphere Processes Group, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Ian D Hogg
- School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
- Canadian High Arctic Research Station, Polar Knowledge Canada, Cambridge Bay, NU, Canada
| | - David W Hopkins
- SRUC - Scotland's Rural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JG, Scotland, UK
| | - Weidong Kong
- State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Thulani Makhalanyane
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
| | - Gwynneth Matcher
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa
| | - Kevin K Newsham
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK
| | - Mark I Stevens
- Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, Earth and Biological Sciences, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia
| | - Katherine V Weigh
- School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Don A Cowan
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa.
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Bech PK, Jarmusch SA, Rasmussen JA, Limborg MT, Gram L, Henriksen NNSE. Succession of microbial community composition and secondary metabolism during marine biofilm development. ISME COMMUNICATIONS 2024; 4:ycae006. [PMID: 38390522 PMCID: PMC10881302 DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2024] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
In nature, secondary metabolites mediate interactions between microorganisms residing in complex microbial communities. However, the degree to which community dynamics can be linked to secondary metabolite potential remains largely unknown. In this study, we address the relationship between community succession and secondary metabolism variation. We used 16S and 18S rRNA gene and adenylation domain amplicon sequencing, genome-resolved metagenomics, and untargeted metabolomics to track the taxons, biosynthetic gene clusters, and metabolome dynamics in situ of microorganisms during marine biofilm succession over 113 days. Two phases were identified during the community succession, with a clear shift around Day 29, where the alkaloid secondary metabolites, pseudanes, were also detected. The microbial secondary metabolite potential changed between the phases, and only a few community members, including Myxococotta spp., were responsible for the majority of the biosynthetic gene cluster potential in the early succession phase. In the late phase, bryozoans and benthic copepods were detected, and the microbial nonribosomal peptide potential drastically decreased in association with a reduction in the relative abundance of the prolific secondary metabolite producers. Conclusively, this study provides evidence that the early succession of the marine biofilm community favors prokaryotes with high nonribosomal peptide synthetase potential. In contrast, the late succession is dominated by multicellular eukaryotes and a reduction in bacterial nonribosomal peptide synthetase potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pernille Kjersgaard Bech
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, DK-2800, Denmark
| | - Scott A Jarmusch
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, DK-2800, Denmark
| | - Jacob Agerbo Rasmussen
- Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen K, DK-1014, Denmark
| | - Morten Tønsberg Limborg
- Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen K, DK-1014, Denmark
| | - Lone Gram
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, DK-2800, Denmark
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Rosenzweig AF, Burian J, Brady SF. Present and future outlooks on environmental DNA-based methods for antibiotic discovery. Curr Opin Microbiol 2023; 75:102335. [PMID: 37327680 PMCID: PMC11076179 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2023.102335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Novel antibiotics are in constant demand to combat a global increase in antibiotic-resistant infections. Bacterial natural products have been a long-standing source of antibiotic compounds, and metagenomic mining of environmental DNA (eDNA) has increasingly provided new antibiotic leads. The metagenomic small-molecule discovery pipeline can be divided into three main steps: surveying eDNA, retrieving a sequence of interest, and accessing the encoded natural product. Improvements in sequencing technology, bioinformatic algorithms, and methods for converting biosynthetic gene clusters into small molecules are steadily increasing our ability to discover metagenomically encoded antibiotics. We predict that, over the next decade, ongoing technological improvements will dramatically increase the rate at which antibiotics are discovered from metagenomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam F Rosenzweig
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Ján Burian
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Sean F Brady
- Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
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Mukherjee A, Tikariha H, Bandla A, Pavagadhi S, Swarup S. Global analyses of biosynthetic gene clusters in phytobiomes reveal strong phylogenetic conservation of terpenes and aryl polyenes. mSystems 2023; 8:e0038723. [PMID: 37409823 PMCID: PMC10469690 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00387-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
There are gaps in our understandings on how did the evolutionary relationships among members of the phytobiomes shape their ability to produce tremendously complex specialized metabolites under the influence of plant host. To determine these relationships, we investigated the phylogenetic conservation of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) on a global collection of 4,519 high-quality and nonredundant (out of 12,181) bacterial isolates and metagenome-assembled genomes from 47 different plant hosts and soil, by adopting three independent phylogenomic approaches (D-test, Pagel's λ, and consenTRAIT). We report that the BGCs are phylogenetically conserved to varying strengths and depths in their different classes. We show that the ability to produce specialized metabolites qualifies as a complex trait, and the depth of conservation is equivalent to ecologically relevant complex microbial traits. Interestingly, terpene and aryl polyene BGCs had the strongest phylogenetic conservation in the phytobiomes, but not in the soil microbiomes. Furthermore, we showed that terpenes are largely uncharacterized in phytobiomes and pinpointed specific clades that harbor potentially novel terpenes. Taken together, this study sheds light on the evolution of specialized metabolites' biosynthesis potential in phytobiomes under the influence of plant hosts and presents strategies to rationally guide the discovery of potentially novel classes of metabolites. IMPORTANCE This study expands our understandings of the biosynthetic potential of phytobiomes by using such worldwide and extensive collection of microbiomes from plants and soil. Apart from providing such vital resource for the plant microbiome researchers, this study provides fundamental insights into the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in phytobiomes under the influence of plant host. Specifically, we report that the strength of phylogenetic conservation in microbiomes varies for different classes of BGCs and is influenced as a result of plant host association. Furthermore, our results indicate that biosynthetic potential of specialized metabolites is deeply conserved equivalent to other complex and ecologically relevant microbial traits. Finally, for the most conserved class of specialized metabolites (terpenes), we identified clades harboring potentially novel class of molecules. Future studies could focus on plant-microbe coevolution and interactions through specialized metabolites building upon these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arijit Mukherjee
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Hitesh Tikariha
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Aditya Bandla
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- NUS Environmental Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Shruti Pavagadhi
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- NUS Environmental Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Sanjay Swarup
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- NUS Environmental Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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Arnold A, Alexander J, Liu G, Stokes JM. Applications of machine learning in microbial natural product drug discovery. Expert Opin Drug Discov 2023; 18:1259-1272. [PMID: 37651150 DOI: 10.1080/17460441.2023.2251400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Natural products (NPs) are a desirable source of new therapeutics due to their structural diversity and evolutionarily optimized bioactivities. NPs and their derivatives account for roughly 70% of approved pharmaceuticals. However, the rate at which novel NPs are discovered has decreased. To accelerate the microbial NP discovery process, machine learning (ML) is being applied to numerous areas of NP discovery and development. AREAS COVERED This review explores the utility of ML at various phases of the microbial NP drug discovery pipeline, discussing concrete examples throughout each major phase: genome mining, dereplication, and biological target prediction. Moreover, the authors discuss how ML approaches can be applied to semi-synthetic approaches to drug discovery. EXPERT OPINION Despite the important role that microbial NPs play in the development of novel drugs, their discovery has declined due to challenges associated with the conventional discovery process. ML is positioned to overcome these limitations given its ability to model complex datasets and generalize to novel chemical and sequence space. Unsurprisingly, ML comes with its own limitations that must be considered for its successful implementation. The authors stress the importance of continuing to build high quality and open access NP datasets to further increase the utility of ML in NP discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Autumn Arnold
- Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, OntarioCanada
- Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada
- David Braley Centre for Antibiotic Discovery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Canada
| | - Jeremie Alexander
- Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, OntarioCanada
- Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada
- David Braley Centre for Antibiotic Discovery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Canada
| | - Gary Liu
- Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, OntarioCanada
- Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada
- David Braley Centre for Antibiotic Discovery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Canada
| | - Jonathan M Stokes
- Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, OntarioCanada
- Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada
- David Braley Centre for Antibiotic Discovery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Canada
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Small Spatial Scale Drivers of Secondary Metabolite Biosynthetic Diversity in Environmental Microbiomes. mSystems 2023; 8:e0072422. [PMID: 36790187 PMCID: PMC10134846 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00724-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/16/2023] Open
Abstract
In the search for novel drug candidates, diverse environmental microbiomes have been surveyed for their secondary metabolite biosynthesis potential, yet little is known about the biosynthetic diversity encoded by divergent microbiomes from different ecosystems, and the environmental parameters driving this diversity. Here, we used targeted amplicon sequencing of adenylation (AD) and ketosynthase (KS) domains along with 16S sequencing to delineate the unique biosynthetic potential of microbiomes from three separate habitats (soil, water, and sediments) exhibiting unique small spatial scale physicochemical gradients. The estimated richness of AD domains was highest in marine sediments with 656 ± 58 operational biosynthetic units (OBUs), while the KS domain richness was highest in soil microbiomes with 388 ± 67 OBUs. Microbiomes with rich and diverse bacterial communities displayed the highest PK potential across all ecosystems, and on a small spatial scale, pH and salinity were significantly, positively correlated to KS domain richness in soil and aquatic systems, respectively. Integrating our findings, we were able to predict the KS domain richness with a RMSE of 31 OBUs and a R2 of 0.91, and by the use of publicly available information on bacterial richness and diversity, we identified grassland biomes as being particularly promising sites for the discovery of novel polyketides. Furthermore, a focus on acidobacterial taxa is likely to be fruitful, as these were responsible for most of the variation in biosynthetic diversity. Overall, our results highlight the importance of sampling diverse environments with high taxonomic diversity in the pursuit for novel secondary metabolites. IMPORTANCE To counteract the antibiotic resistance crisis, novel anti-infective agents need to be discovered and brought to market. Microbial secondary metabolites have been important sources of inspiration for small-molecule therapeutics. However, the isolation of novel antibiotics is difficult, and the risk of rediscovery is high. With the overarching purpose of identifying promising microbiomes for discovery of novel bioactivity, we mapped out the most significant drivers of biosynthetic diversity across divergent microbiomes. We found the biosynthetic potential to be unique to individual ecosystems, and to depend on bacterial taxonomic diversity. Within systems, and on small spatial scales, pH and salinity correlated positively to the biosynthetic richness of the microbiomes, Acidobacteria representing the taxa most highly associated with biosynthetic diversity. Ultimately, understanding the key drivers of the biosynthesis potential of environmental microbiomes will allow us to focus bioprospecting efforts and facilitate the discovery of novel therapeutics.
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The Natural Product Domain Seeker version 2 (NaPDoS2) webtool relates ketosynthase phylogeny to biosynthetic function. J Biol Chem 2022; 298:102480. [PMID: 36108739 PMCID: PMC9582728 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Revised: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
The Natural Product Domain Seeker (NaPDoS) webtool detects and classifies ketosynthase (KS) and condensation domains from genomic, metagenomic, and amplicon sequence data. Unlike other tools, a phylogeny-based classification scheme is used to make broader predictions about the polyketide synthase (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) genes in which these domains are found. NaPDoS is particularly useful for the analysis of incomplete biosynthetic genes or gene clusters, as are often observed in poorly assembled genomes and metagenomes, or when loci are not clustered, as in eukaryotic genomes. To help support the growing interest in sequence-based analyses of natural product biosynthetic diversity, here we introduce version 2 of the webtool, NaPDoS2, available at http://napdos.ucsd.edu/napdos2. This update includes the addition of 1417 KS sequences, representing a major expansion of the taxonomic and functional diversity represented in the webtool database. The phylogeny-based KS classification scheme now recognizes 41 class and subclass assignments, including new type II PKS subclasses. Workflow modifications accelerate run times, allowing larger datasets to be analyzed. In addition, default parameters were established using statistical validation tests to maximize KS detection and classification accuracy while minimizing false positives. We further demonstrate the applications of NaPDoS2 to assess PKS biosynthetic potential using genomic, metagenomic, and PCR amplicon datasets. These examples illustrate how NaPDoS2 can be used to predict biosynthetic potential and detect genes involved in the biosynthesis of specific structure classes or new biosynthetic mechanisms.
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Mining Biosynthetic Gene Clusters in Carnobacterium maltaromaticum by Interference Competition Network and Genome Analysis. Microorganisms 2022; 10:microorganisms10091794. [PMID: 36144396 PMCID: PMC9504619 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10091794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 08/28/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Carnobacterium maltaromaticum is a non-starter lactic acid bacterium (LAB) of interest in the dairy industry for biopreservation. This study investigated the interference competition network and the specialized metabolites biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) content in this LAB in order to explore the relationship between the antimicrobial properties and the genome content. Network analysis revealed that the potency of inhibition tended to increase when the inhibition spectrum broadened, but also that several strains exhibited a high potency and narrow spectrum of inhibition. The C. maltaromaticum strains with potent anti-L. monocytogenes were characterized by high potency and a wide intraspecific spectrum. Genome mining of 29 strains revealed the presence of 12 bacteriocin BGCs: four of class I and eight of class II, among which seven belong to class IIa and one to class IIc. Overall, eight bacteriocins and one nonribosomal peptide synthetase and polyketide synthase (NRPS-PKS) BGCs were newly described. The comparison of the antimicrobial properties resulting from the analysis of the network and the BGC genome content allowed us to delineate candidate BGCs responsible for anti-L. monocytogenes and anti-C. maltaromaticum activity. However, it also highlighted that genome analysis is not suitable in the current state of the databases for the prediction of genes involved in the antimicrobial activity of strains with a narrow anti-C. maltaromaticum activity.
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Soil substrate culturing approaches recover diverse members of Actinomycetota from desert soils of Herring Island, East Antarctica. Extremophiles 2022; 26:24. [PMID: 35829965 PMCID: PMC9279279 DOI: 10.1007/s00792-022-01271-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance is an escalating health crisis requiring urgent action. Most antimicrobials are natural products (NPs) sourced from Actinomycetota, particularly the Streptomyces. Underexplored and extreme environments are predicted to harbour novel microorganisms with the capacity to synthesise unique metabolites. Herring Island is a barren and rocky cold desert in East Antarctica, remote from anthropogenic impact. We aimed to recover rare and cold-adapted NP-producing bacteria, by employing two culturing methods which mimic the natural environment: direct soil culturing and the soil substrate membrane system. First, we analysed 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing data from 18 Herring Island soils and selected the soil sample with the highest Actinomycetota relative abundance (78%) for culturing experiments. We isolated 166 strains across three phyla, including novel and rare strains, with 94% of strains belonging to the Actinomycetota. These strains encompassed thirty-five ‘species’ groups, 18 of which were composed of Streptomyces strains. We screened representative strains for genes which encode polyketide synthases and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases, indicating that 69% have the capacity to synthesise polyketide and non-ribosomal peptide NPs. Fourteen Streptomyces strains displayed antimicrobial activity against selected bacterial and yeast pathogens using an in situ assay. Our results confirm that the cold-adapted bacteria of the harsh East Antarctic deserts are worthy targets in the search for bioactive compounds.
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Brinkmann S, Kurz M, Patras MA, Hartwig C, Marner M, Leis B, Billion A, Kleiner Y, Bauer A, Toti L, Pöverlein C, Hammann PE, Vilcinskas A, Glaeser J, Spohn M, Schäberle TF. Genomic and Chemical Decryption of the Bacteroidetes Phylum for Its Potential to Biosynthesize Natural Products. Microbiol Spectr 2022; 10:e0247921. [PMID: 35442080 PMCID: PMC9248904 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02479-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
With progress in genome sequencing and data sharing, 1,000s of bacterial genomes are publicly available. Genome mining-using bioinformatics tools in terms of biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) identification, analysis, and rating-has become a key technology to explore the capabilities for natural product (NP) biosynthesis. Comprehensively, analyzing the genetic potential of the phylum Bacteroidetes revealed Chitinophaga as the most talented genus in terms of BGC abundance and diversity. Guided by the computational predictions, we conducted a metabolomics and bioactivity driven NP discovery program on 25 Chitinophaga strains. High numbers of strain-specific metabolite buckets confirmed the upfront predicted biosynthetic potential and revealed a tremendous uncharted chemical space. Mining this data set, we isolated the new iron chelating nonribosomally synthesized cyclic tetradeca- and pentadecalipodepsipeptide antibiotics chitinopeptins with activity against Candida, produced by C. eiseniae DSM 22224 and C. flava KCTC 62435, respectively. IMPORTANCE The development of pipelines for anti-infectives to be applied in plant, animal, and human health management are dried up. However, the resistance development against compounds in use calls for new lead structures. To fill this gap and to enhance the probability of success for the discovery of new bioactive natural products, microbial taxa currently underinvestigated must be mined. This study investigates the potential within the bacterial phylum Bacteroidetes. A combination of omics-technologies revealed taxonomical hot spots for specialized metabolites. Genome- and metabolome-based analyses showed that the phylum covers a new chemical space compared with classic natural product producers. Members of the Bacteroidetes may thus present a promising bioresource for future screening and isolation campaigns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Brinkmann
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Michael Kurz
- Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Maria A. Patras
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Christoph Hartwig
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Michael Marner
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Benedikt Leis
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - André Billion
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Yolanda Kleiner
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Armin Bauer
- Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Luigi Toti
- Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | | | | | - Andreas Vilcinskas
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Jens Glaeser
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
- Evotec International GmbH, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Marius Spohn
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
| | - Till F. Schäberle
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, Giessen, Germany
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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14
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Srivastava N, Sarethy IP, Jeevanandam J, Danquah M. Emerging strategies for microbial screening of novel chemotherapeutics. J Mol Struct 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2022.132419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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15
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Brinkmann S, Spohn MS, Schäberle TF. Bioactive natural products from Bacteroidetes. Nat Prod Rep 2022; 39:1045-1065. [PMID: 35315462 DOI: 10.1039/d1np00072a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Covering: up to end of January 2022Bacteria representing the phylum Bacteroidetes produce a diverse range of natural products, including polyketides, peptides and lactams. Here, we discuss unique aspects of the bioactive compounds discovered thus far, and the corresponding biosynthetic pathways if known, providing a comprehensive overview of the Bacteroidetes as a natural product reservoir.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Brinkmann
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
| | - Marius S Spohn
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
| | - Till F Schäberle
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), Branch for Bioresources, 35392 Giessen, Germany. .,Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, 35392 Giessen, Germany.,German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Giessen-Marburg-Langen, Giessen, Germany
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Chevrette MG, Himes BW, Carlos-Shanley C. Nutrient Availability Shifts the Biosynthetic Potential of Soil-Derived Microbial Communities. Curr Microbiol 2022; 79:64. [PMID: 35020062 DOI: 10.1007/s00284-021-02746-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2021] [Accepted: 12/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Secondary metabolites produced by microorganisms are the main source of antimicrobials and other pharmaceutical drugs. Soil microbes have been the primary discovery source for these secondary metabolites, often producing complex organic compounds with specific biological activities. Research suggests that secondary metabolism broadly shapes microbial ecological interactions, but little is known about the factors that shape the abundance, distribution, and diversity of biosynthetic gene clusters in the context of microbial communities. In this study, we investigate the role of nutrient availability on the abundance of biosynthetic gene clusters in soil-derived microbial consortia. Soil microbial consortia enriched in high sugar medium (150 mg/L of glucose and 200 mg/L of trehalose) had more biosynthetic gene clusters and higher inhibitory activity than those enriched in low sugar medium (15 mg/L of glucose + 20 mg/L of trehalose). Our results demonstrate that experimental microbial communities are a promising tool to study the ecology of specialized metabolites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc G Chevrette
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53715, USA
| | - Bradley W Himes
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA
| | - Camila Carlos-Shanley
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA.
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Xu G, Zhang L, Liu X, Guan F, Xu Y, Yue H, Huang JQ, Chen J, Wu N, Tian J. Combined assembly of long and short sequencing reads improve the efficiency of exploring the soil metagenome. BMC Genomics 2022; 23:37. [PMID: 34996356 PMCID: PMC8742384 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-021-08260-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Advances in DNA sequencing technologies have transformed our capacity to perform life science research, decipher the dynamics of complex soil microbial communities and exploit them for plant disease management. However, soil is a complex conglomerate, which makes functional metagenomics studies very challenging. Results Metagenomes were assembled by long-read (PacBio, PB), short-read (Illumina, IL), and mixture of PB and IL (PI) sequencing of soil DNA samples were compared. Ortholog analyses and functional annotation revealed that the PI approach significantly increased the contig length of the metagenomic sequences compared to IL and enlarged the gene pool compared to PB. The PI approach also offered comparable or higher species abundance than either PB or IL alone, and showed significant advantages for studying natural product biosynthetic genes in the soil microbiomes. Conclusion Our results provide an effective strategy for combining long and short-read DNA sequencing data to explore and distill the maximum information out of soil metagenomics. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-021-08260-3.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guoshun Xu
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China
| | - Liwen Zhang
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China.
| | - Xiaoqing Liu
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China
| | - Feifei Guan
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuquan Xu
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China
| | - Haitao Yue
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Xinjiang University, 666 Shengli Road, Urumqi, 830046, People's Republic of China
| | - Jin-Qun Huang
- State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - Jieyin Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.
| | - Ningfeng Wu
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China
| | - Jian Tian
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China.
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The natural product biosynthesis potential of the microbiomes of Earth – Bioprospecting for novel anti-microbial agents in the meta-omics era. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2022; 20:343-352. [PMID: 35035787 PMCID: PMC8733032 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2021.12.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
As we stand on the brink of the post-antibiotic era, we are in dire need of novel antimicrobial compounds. Microorganisms produce a wealth of so-called secondary metabolites and have been our most prolific source of antibiotics so far. However, rediscovery of known antibiotics from well-studied cultured microorganisms, and the fact that the majority of microorganisms in the environment are out of reach by means of conventional cultivation techniques, have led to the exploration of the biosynthetic potential in natural microbial communities by novel approaches. In this mini review we discuss how sequence-based analyses have exposed an unprecedented wealth of potential for secondary metabolite production in soil, marine, and host-associated microbiomes, with a focus on the biosynthesis of non-ribosomal peptides and polyketides. Furthermore, we discuss how the complexity of natural microbiomes and the lack of standardized methodology has complicated comparisons across biomes. Yet, as even the most commonly sampled microbiomes hold promise of providing novel classes of natural products, we lastly discuss the development of approaches applied in the translation of the immense biosynthetic diversity of natural microbiomes to the procurement of novel antibiotics.
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Waschulin V, Borsetto C, James R, Newsham KK, Donadio S, Corre C, Wellington E. Biosynthetic potential of uncultured Antarctic soil bacteria revealed through long-read metagenomic sequencing. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:101-111. [PMID: 34253854 PMCID: PMC8692599 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-01052-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The growing problem of antibiotic resistance has led to the exploration of uncultured bacteria as potential sources of new antimicrobials. PCR amplicon analyses and short-read sequencing studies of samples from different environments have reported evidence of high biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) diversity in metagenomes, indicating their potential for producing novel and useful compounds. However, recovering full-length BGC sequences from uncultivated bacteria remains a challenge due to the technological restraints of short-read sequencing, thus making assessment of BGC diversity difficult. Here, long-read sequencing and genome mining were used to recover >1400 mostly full-length BGCs that demonstrate the rich diversity of BGCs from uncultivated lineages present in soil from Mars Oasis, Antarctica. A large number of highly divergent BGCs were not only found in the phyla Acidobacteriota, Verrucomicrobiota and Gemmatimonadota but also in the actinobacterial classes Acidimicrobiia and Thermoleophilia and the gammaproteobacterial order UBA7966. The latter furthermore contained a potential novel family of RiPPs. Our findings underline the biosynthetic potential of underexplored phyla as well as unexplored lineages within seemingly well-studied producer phyla. They also showcase long-read metagenomic sequencing as a promising way to access the untapped genetic reservoir of specialised metabolite gene clusters of the uncultured majority of microbes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Chiara Borsetto
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
| | | | | | | | - Christophe Corre
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
- Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
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Insuk C, Pongpamorn P, Forsythe A, Matsumoto A, Ōmura S, Pathom-aree W, Cheeptham N, Xu J. Taxonomic and Metabolite Diversities of Moss-Associated Actinobacteria from Thailand. Metabolites 2021; 12:metabo12010022. [PMID: 35050144 PMCID: PMC8777641 DOI: 10.3390/metabo12010022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2021] [Revised: 12/22/2021] [Accepted: 12/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Actinobacteria are a group of ecologically important bacteria capable of producing diverse bioactive compounds. However, much remains unknown about the taxonomic and metabolic diversities of actinobacteria from many geographic regions and ecological niches. In this study, we report the isolation of actinobacteria from moss and moss-associated rhizosphere soils in Thailand. Among the 89 isolates analyzed for their bioactivities, 86 strains produced indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, ranging from 0.04 to 59.12 mg/L); 42 strains produced hydroxamate type of siderophore; 35 strains produced catecholate type of siderophore; 21 strains solubilized tricalcium phosphate; and many strains exhibited antagonistic activities against one to several of the seven selected plant, animal, and human pathogens. Overall, actinobacteria from the rhizosphere soil of mosses showed greater abilities to produce IAA and siderophores and to solubilize tricalcium phosphate than those from mosses. Among these 89 isolates, 37 were analyzed for their 16S rRNA gene sequences, which revealed their diverse phylogenetic distributions among seven genera, Streptomyces, Micromonospora, Nocardia, Actinoplanes, Saccharothrix, Streptosporangium, and Cryptosporangium. Furthermore, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses of ethyl acetate crude extracts of three selected isolates with inhibitory effects against a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain revealed diverse metabolites with known antimicrobial activities. Together, our results demonstrate that actinobacteria from mosses in Thailand are taxonomically diverse and capable of producing a range of metabolites with plant-growth-promoting and microbial pathogen-inhibiting potentials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chadabhorn Insuk
- Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada; (C.I.); (A.F.)
| | - Pornkanok Pongpamorn
- National Omics Center, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand;
| | - Adrian Forsythe
- Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada; (C.I.); (A.F.)
| | - Atsuko Matsumoto
- Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, Kitasato University, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8641, Japan; (A.M.); (S.Ō.)
| | - Satoshi Ōmura
- Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, Kitasato University, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8641, Japan; (A.M.); (S.Ō.)
| | - Wasu Pathom-aree
- Research Center of Microbial Diversity and Sustainable Utilization, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Correspondence: (W.P.-a.); (N.C.); (J.X.)
| | - Naowarat Cheeptham
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC V2C 0C8, Canada
- Correspondence: (W.P.-a.); (N.C.); (J.X.)
| | - Jianping Xu
- Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada; (C.I.); (A.F.)
- Correspondence: (W.P.-a.); (N.C.); (J.X.)
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Elfeki M, Mantri S, Clark CM, Green SJ, Ziemert N, Murphy BT. Evaluating the Distribution of Bacterial Natural Product Biosynthetic Genes across Lake Huron Sediment. ACS Chem Biol 2021; 16:2623-2631. [PMID: 34605624 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Environmental microorganisms continue to serve as a major source of bioactive natural products (NPs) and as an inspiration for many other scaffolds in the toolbox of modern medicine. Nearly all microbial NP-inspired therapies can be traced to field expeditions to collect samples from the environment. Despite the importance of these expeditions in the search for new drugs, few studies have attempted to document the extent to which NPs or their corresponding production genes are distributed within a given environment. To gain insights into this, the geographic occurrence of NP ketosynthase (KS) and adenylation (A) domains was documented across 53 and 58 surface sediment samples, respectively, covering 59,590 square kilometers of Lake Huron. Overall, no discernible NP geographic distribution patterns were observed for 90,528 NP classes of nonribosomal peptides and polyketides detected in the survey. While each sampling location harbored a similar number of A domain operational biosynthetic units (OBUs), a limited overlap of OBU type was observed, suggesting that at the sequencing depth used in this study, no single location served as a NP "hotspot". These data support the hypothesis that there is ample variation in NP occurrence between sampling sites and suggest that extensive sample collection efforts are required to fully capture the functional chemical diversity of sediment microbial communities on a regional scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Elfeki
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
| | - Shrikant Mantri
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Chase M. Clark
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
| | - Stefan J. Green
- Genomics and Microbiome Core Facility, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, United States
| | - Nadine Ziemert
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Brian T. Murphy
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
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In Silico/In Vitro Strategies Leading to the Discovery of New Nonribosomal Peptide and Polyketide Antibiotics Active against Human Pathogens. Microorganisms 2021; 9:microorganisms9112297. [PMID: 34835423 PMCID: PMC8625390 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9112297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2021] [Revised: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Antibiotics are majorly important molecules for human health. Following the golden age of antibiotic discovery, a period of decline ensued, characterised by the rediscovery of the same molecules. At the same time, new culture techniques and high-throughput sequencing enabled the discovery of new microorganisms that represent a potential source of interesting new antimicrobial substances to explore. The aim of this review is to present recently discovered nonribosomal peptide (NRP) and polyketide (PK) molecules with antimicrobial activity against human pathogens. We highlight the different in silico/in vitro strategies and approaches that led to their discovery. As a result of technological progress and a better understanding of the NRP and PK synthesis mechanisms, these new antibiotic compounds provide an additional option in human medical treatment and a potential way out of the impasse of antibiotic resistance.
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Metagenomic Sequencing of Multiple Soil Horizons and Sites in Close Vicinity Revealed Novel Secondary Metabolite Diversity. mSystems 2021; 6:e0101821. [PMID: 34636675 PMCID: PMC8510542 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01018-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Discovery of novel antibiotics is crucial for combating rapidly spreading antimicrobial resistance and new infectious diseases. Most of the clinically used antibiotics are natural products—secondary metabolites produced by soil microbes that can be cultured in the lab. Rediscovery of these secondary metabolites during discovery expeditions costs both time and resources. Metagenomics approaches can overcome this challenge by capturing both culturable and unculturable hidden microbial diversity. To be effective, such an approach should address questions like the following. Which sequencing method is better at capturing the microbial diversity and biosynthesis potential? What part of the soil should be sampled? Can patterns and correlations from such big-data explorations guide future novel natural product discovery surveys? Here, we address these questions by a paired amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing survey of samples from soil horizons of multiple forest sites very close to each other. Metagenome mining identified numerous novel biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and enzymatic domain sequences. Hybrid assembly of both long reads and short reads improved the metagenomic assembly and resulted in better BGC annotations. A higher percentage of novel domains was recovered from shotgun metagenome data sets than from amplicon data sets. Overall, in addition to revealing the biosynthetic potential of soil microbes, our results suggest the importance of sampling not only different soils but also their horizons to capture microbial and biosynthetic diversity and highlight the merits of metagenome sequencing methods. IMPORTANCE This study helped uncover the biosynthesis potential of forest soils via exploration of shotgun metagenome and amplicon sequencing methods and showed that both methods are needed to expose the full microbial diversity in soil. Based on our metagenome mining results, we suggest revising the historical strategy of sampling soils from far-flung places, as we found a significant number of novel and diverse BGCs and domains even in different soils that are very close to each other. Furthermore, sampling of different soil horizons can reveal the additional diversity that often remains hidden and is mainly caused by differences in environmental key parameters such as soil pH and nutrient content. This paired metagenomic survey identified diversity patterns and correlations, a step toward developing a rational approach for future natural product discovery surveys.
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Hernandez A, Nguyen LT, Dhakal R, Murphy BT. The need to innovate sample collection and library generation in microbial drug discovery: a focus on academia. Nat Prod Rep 2021; 38:292-300. [PMID: 32706349 PMCID: PMC7855266 DOI: 10.1039/d0np00029a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The question of whether culturable microorganisms will continue to be a viable source of new drug leads is inherently married to the strategies used to collect samples from the environment, the methods used to cultivate microorganisms from these samples, and the processes used to create microbial libraries. An academic microbial natural products (NP) drug discovery program with the latest innovative chromatographic and spectroscopic technology, high-throughput capacity, and bioassays will remain at the mercy of the quality of its microorganism source library. This viewpoint will discuss limitations of sample collection and microbial strain library generation practices. Additionally, it will offer suggestions to innovate these areas, particularly through the targeted cultivation of several understudied bacterial phyla and the untargeted use of mass spectrometry and bioinformatics to generate diverse microbial libraries. Such innovations have potential to impact downstream therapeutic discovery, and make its front end more informed, efficient, and less reliant on serendipity. This viewpoint is not intended to be a comprehensive review of contributing literature and was written with a focus on bacteria. Strategies to discover NPs from microbial libraries, including a variety of genomics and "OSMAC" style approaches, are considered downstream of sample collection and library creation, and thus are out of the scope of this viewpoint.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Hernandez
- Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
| | - Linh T Nguyen
- Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA. and Institute of Marine Biochemistry, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Nghiado, Caugiay, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Radhika Dhakal
- Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
| | - Brian T Murphy
- Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Biomolecular Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
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Abstract
Since bacterial resistance to antibiotics is developing worldwide, new antibiotics are needed. Most antibiotics discovered so far have been found in soil-dwelling bacteria, so we instead targeted marine environments as a novel source of bioactive potential. We used amplicon sequencing of bioactive gene clusters in the microbiome of coastal seawater and sandy sediments and found the bioactive potential to be comparable to, but distinct from, the bioactive potential of selected soil microbiomes. Moreover, most of this potential is not captured by culturing. Comparing the biosynthetic potential to the corresponding microbiome composition suggested that minor constituents of the microbiome likely hold a disproportionally large fraction of the biosynthesis potential. Novel natural products have traditionally been sourced from culturable soil microorganisms, whereas marine sources have been less explored. The purpose of this study was to profile the microbial biosynthetic potential in coastal surface seawater and sandy sediment samples and to evaluate the feasibility of capturing this potential using traditional culturing methods. Amplicon sequencing of conserved ketosynthase (KS) and adenylation (AD) domains within polyketide synthase (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) genes showed that seawater and, in particular, sandy sediment had a high biosynthetic potential with 6,065 and 11,072 KS operational biosynthetic units (OBUs) and 3,292 and 5,691 AD OBUs, respectively, compared to that of four soil samples collected by Charlop-Powers et al. (Z. Charlop-Powers, C. C. Pregitzer, C. Lemetre, M. A. Ternei, et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113:14811–14816, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1615581113) with 7,067 KS and 1,629 AD OBUs. All three niches harbored unique OBUs (P = 0.001 for KS and P = 0.002 for AD by permutational multivariate analysis of variance [PERMANOVA]). The total colonial growth captured 1.9% of KS and 13.6% of AD OBUs from seawater and 2.2% KS and 12.5% AD OBUs from sediment. In a subset of bioactive isolates, only four KS OBUs and one AD OBU were recovered from whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of seven seawater-derived strains and one AD OBU from a sediment-derived strain, adding up to 0.028% of the original OBU diversity. Using a pairwise regression model of classified amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) to the species level, and OBUs, we suggest a method to estimate possible links between taxonomy and biosynthetic potential, which indicated that low abundance organisms may hold a disproportional share of the biosynthetic potential. Thus, marine microorganisms are a rich source of novel bioactive potential, which is difficult to access with traditional culturing methods. IMPORTANCE Since bacterial resistance to antibiotics is developing worldwide, new antibiotics are needed. Most antibiotics discovered so far have been found in soil-dwelling bacteria, so we instead targeted marine environments as a novel source of bioactive potential. We used amplicon sequencing of bioactive gene clusters in the microbiome of coastal seawater and sandy sediments and found the bioactive potential to be comparable to, but distinct from, the bioactive potential of selected soil microbiomes. Moreover, most of this potential is not captured by culturing. Comparing the biosynthetic potential to the corresponding microbiome composition suggested that minor constituents of the microbiome likely hold a disproportionally large fraction of the biosynthesis potential.
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Sharrar AM, Crits-Christoph A, Méheust R, Diamond S, Starr EP, Banfield JF. Bacterial Secondary Metabolite Biosynthetic Potential in Soil Varies with Phylum, Depth, and Vegetation Type. mBio 2020; 11:e00416-20. [PMID: 32546614 PMCID: PMC7298704 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00416-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2020] [Accepted: 05/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacteria isolated from soils are major sources of specialized metabolites, including antibiotics and other compounds with clinical value that likely shape interactions among microbial community members and impact biogeochemical cycles. Yet, isolated lineages represent a small fraction of all soil bacterial diversity. It remains unclear how the production of specialized metabolites varies across the phylogenetic diversity of bacterial species in soils and whether the genetic potential for production of these metabolites differs with soil depth and vegetation type within a geographic region. We sampled soils and saprolite from three sites in a northern California Critical Zone Observatory with various vegetation and bedrock characteristics and reconstructed 1,334 metagenome-assembled genomes containing diverse biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for secondary metabolite production. We obtained genomes for prolific producers of secondary metabolites, including novel groups within the Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, and candidate phylum "Candidatus Dormibacteraeota." Surprisingly, one genome of a candidate phyla radiation (CPR) bacterium coded for a ribosomally synthesized linear azole/azoline-containing peptide, a capacity we found in other publicly available CPR bacterial genomes. Overall, bacteria with higher biosynthetic potential were enriched in shallow soils and grassland soils, with patterns of abundance of BGC type varying by taxonomy.IMPORTANCE Microbes produce specialized compounds to compete or communicate with one another and their environment. Some of these compounds, such as antibiotics, are also useful in medicine and biotechnology. Historically, most antibiotics have come from soil bacteria which can be isolated and grown in the lab. Though the vast majority of soil bacteria cannot be isolated, we can extract their genetic information and search it for genes which produce these specialized compounds. These understudied soil bacteria offer a wealth of potential for the discovery of new and important microbial products. Here, we identified the ability to produce these specialized compounds in diverse and novel bacteria in a range of soil environments. This information will be useful to other researchers who wish to isolate certain products. Beyond their use to humans, understanding the distribution and function of microbial products is key to understanding microbial communities and their effects on biogeochemical cycles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison M Sharrar
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Alexander Crits-Christoph
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Raphaël Méheust
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Spencer Diamond
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Evan P Starr
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Jillian F Banfield
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, Berkeley, California, USA
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Rego A, Sousa AGG, Santos JP, Pascoal F, Canário J, Leão PN, Magalhães C. Diversity of Bacterial Biosynthetic Genes in Maritime Antarctica. Microorganisms 2020; 8:microorganisms8020279. [PMID: 32085500 PMCID: PMC7074882 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8020279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2020] [Revised: 02/14/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacterial natural products (NPs) are still a major source of new drug leads. Polyketides (PKs) and non-ribosomal peptides (NRP) are two pharmaceutically important families of NPs and recent studies have revealed Antarctica to harbor endemic polyketide synthase (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) genes, likely to be involved in the production of novel metabolites. Despite this, the diversity of secondary metabolites genes in Antarctica is still poorly explored. In this study, a computational bioprospection approach was employed to study the diversity and identity of PKS and NRPS genes to one of the most biodiverse areas in maritime Antarctica—Maxwell Bay. Amplicon sequencing of soil samples targeting ketosynthase (KS) and adenylation (AD) domains of PKS and NRPS genes, respectively, revealed abundant and unexplored chemical diversity in this peninsula. About 20% of AD domain sequences were only distantly related to characterized biosynthetic genes. Several PKS and NRPS genes were found to be closely associated to recently described metabolites including those from uncultured and candidate phyla. The combination of new approaches in computational biology and new culture-dependent and -independent strategies is thus critical for the recovery of the potential novel chemistry encoded in Antarctica microorganisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana Rego
- Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; (A.R.); (A.G.G.S.); (J.P.S.); (F.P.)
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
| | - António G. G. Sousa
- Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; (A.R.); (A.G.G.S.); (J.P.S.); (F.P.)
| | - João P. Santos
- Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; (A.R.); (A.G.G.S.); (J.P.S.); (F.P.)
- Institute F.-A. Forel, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of Geneva, 66, Boulevard Carl-Vogt, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
| | - Francisco Pascoal
- Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; (A.R.); (A.G.G.S.); (J.P.S.); (F.P.)
| | - João Canário
- Centro de Química Estrutural at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal;
| | - Pedro N. Leão
- Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; (A.R.); (A.G.G.S.); (J.P.S.); (F.P.)
- Correspondence: (P.N.L); (C.M.)
| | - Catarina Magalhães
- Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; (A.R.); (A.G.G.S.); (J.P.S.); (F.P.)
- Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, 4150-179 Porto, Portugal
- School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3216, New Zealand
- Correspondence: (P.N.L); (C.M.)
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