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Bioactive compounds synthesized by non-ribosomal peptide synthetases and type-I polyketide synthases discovered through genome-mining and metagenomics

Biotechnology Letters volume 34, pages 1393–1403 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) and type-I polyketide synthases (PKS-I) are multimodular enzymes involved in biosynthesis of oligopeptide and polyketide secondary metabolites produced by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. New findings regarding the mechanisms underlying NRPS and PKS-I evolution illustrate how microorganisms expand their metabolic potential. During the last decade rapid development of bioinformatics tools as well as improved sequencing and annotation of microbial genomes led to discovery of novel bioactive compounds synthesized by NRPS and PKS-I through genome-mining. Taking advantage of these technological developments metagenomics is a fast growing research field which directly studies microbial genomes or specific gene groups and their products. Discovery of novel bioactive compounds synthesized by NRPS and PKS-I will certainly be accelerated through metagenomics, allowing the exploitation of so far untapped microbial resources in biotechnology and medicine.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Postgraduate Programs: “Molecular Biology and Genetics Applications-Diagnostic Markers” and “Biotechnology-Quality assessment in Nutrition and the Environment”, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, Ploutonos 26 & Eolou, 41221, Larissa, Greece

    Katerina Nikolouli & Dimitris Mossialos

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  1. Katerina Nikolouli
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  2. Dimitris Mossialos
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Correspondence to Dimitris Mossialos.

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Nikolouli, K., Mossialos, D. Bioactive compounds synthesized by non-ribosomal peptide synthetases and type-I polyketide synthases discovered through genome-mining and metagenomics. Biotechnol Lett 34, 1393–1403 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-0919-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-0919-2

Keywords

  • Bioactive compounds
  • Evolution
  • Genome mining
  • Metagenomics
  • Non-ribosomal peptide synthetase
  • Polyketide synthase

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