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Microbial genome mining for accelerated natural products discovery: is a renaissance in the making?

  • Introductory Review
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Microbial genome mining is a rapidly developing approach to discover new and novel secondary metabolites for drug discovery. Many advances have been made in the past decade to facilitate genome mining, and these are reviewed in this Special Issue of the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. In this Introductory Review, we discuss the concept of genome mining and why it is important for the revitalization of natural product discovery; what microbes show the most promise for focused genome mining; how microbial genomes can be mined; how genome mining can be leveraged with other technologies; how progress on genome mining can be accelerated; and who should fund future progress in this promising field. We direct interested readers to more focused reviews on the individual topics in this Special Issue for more detailed summaries on the current state-of-the-art.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, 7300 Stevenson Center, Nashville, TN, 37225, USA

    Brian O. Bachmann

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky, 789 S. Limestone Street, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA

    Steven G. Van Lanen

  3. CognoGen Biotechnology Consulting, 7636 Andora Drive, Sarasota, FL, 34238, USA

    Richard H. Baltz

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  1. Brian O. Bachmann
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  2. Steven G. Van Lanen
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  3. Richard H. Baltz
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Correspondence to Richard H. Baltz.

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Bachmann, B.O., Van Lanen, S.G. & Baltz, R.H. Microbial genome mining for accelerated natural products discovery: is a renaissance in the making?. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 41, 175–184 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-013-1389-9

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