Leao Tiago, Castelão Guilherme, Korobeynikov Anton, Monroe Emily A, Podell Sheila, Glukhov Evgenia, Allen Eric E, Gerwick William H, Gerwick Lena
Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
Climate, Atmospheric Sciences, and Physical Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Mar 21;114(12):3198-3203. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1618556114. Epub 2017 Mar 6.
Cyanobacteria are major sources of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon in nature. In addition to the importance of their primary metabolism, some cyanobacteria are prolific producers of unique and bioactive secondary metabolites. Chemical investigations of the cyanobacterial genus have resulted in the isolation of over 190 compounds in the last two decades. However, preliminary genomic analysis has suggested that genome-guided approaches can enable the discovery of novel compounds from even well-studied strains, highlighting the importance of obtaining complete genomes. We report a complete genome of a filamentous tropical marine cyanobacterium, PAL, which reveals that about one-fifth of its genome is devoted to production of secondary metabolites, an impressive four times the cyanobacterial average. Moreover, possession of the complete PAL genome has allowed improvement to the assembly of three other draft genomes. Comparative genomics revealed that they are remarkably similar to one another, despite their differences in geography, morphology, and secondary metabolite profiles. Gene cluster networking highlights that this genus is distinctive among cyanobacteria, not only in the number of secondary metabolite pathways but also in the content of many pathways, which are potentially distinct from all other bacterial gene clusters to date. These findings portend that future genome-guided secondary metabolite discovery and isolation efforts should be highly productive.
蓝细菌是自然界中氧气、氮和碳的主要来源。除了其初级代谢的重要性外,一些蓝细菌还是独特且具有生物活性的次生代谢产物的丰富生产者。在过去二十年中,对蓝细菌属的化学研究已分离出190多种化合物。然而,初步的基因组分析表明,基于基因组的方法能够从即使是研究充分的菌株中发现新化合物,这凸显了获得完整基因组的重要性。我们报告了一种丝状热带海洋蓝细菌PAL的完整基因组,该基因组显示其约五分之一的基因组用于次生代谢产物的产生,这一比例令人印象深刻,是蓝细菌平均水平的四倍。此外,拥有完整的PAL基因组有助于改进其他三个蓝细菌基因组草图的组装。比较基因组学表明,尽管它们在地理、形态和次生代谢产物谱方面存在差异,但彼此之间非常相似。基因簇网络分析突出表明,该属在蓝细菌中具有独特性,不仅在于次生代谢产物途径的数量,还在于许多途径的内容,这些途径可能与迄今为止所有其他细菌基因簇都不同。这些发现预示着未来基于基因组的次生代谢产物发现和分离工作将极具成效。