Amoutzias Grigoris D, Van de Peer Yves, Mossialos Dimitris
Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB & Department of Molecular Genetics, Ghent University, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
Future Microbiol. 2008 Jun;3(3):361-70. doi: 10.2217/17460913.3.3.361.
The majority of nonribosomal peptide synthases and type I polyketide synthases are multimodular megasynthases of oligopeptide and polyketide secondary metabolites, respectively. Owing to their multimodular architecture, they synthesize their metabolites in assembly line logic. The ongoing genomic revolution together with the application of computational tools has provided the opportunity to mine the various genomes for these enzymes and identify those organisms that produce many oligopeptide and polyketide metabolites. In addition, scientists have started to comprehend the molecular mechanisms of megasynthase evolution, by duplication, recombination, point mutation and module skipping. This knowledge and computational analyses have been implemented towards predicting the specificity of these megasynthases and the structure of their end products. It is an exciting field, both for gaining deeper insight into their basic molecular mechanisms and exploiting them biotechnologically.
大多数非核糖体肽合成酶和I型聚酮化合物合成酶分别是寡肽和聚酮化合物次级代谢产物的多模块巨型合成酶。由于其多模块结构，它们以装配线逻辑合成代谢产物。正在进行的基因组革命以及计算工具的应用为从各种基因组中挖掘这些酶并识别那些产生许多寡肽和聚酮化合物代谢产物的生物体提供了机会。此外，科学家们已经开始理解巨型合成酶通过复制、重组、点突变和模块跳跃进行进化的分子机制。这些知识和计算分析已用于预测这些巨型合成酶的特异性及其终产物的结构。这是一个令人兴奋的领域，既有助于更深入地了解其基本分子机制，也有助于在生物技术方面加以利用。
