Department of Molecular Biology, Section Microbiology, University of León, 24071 León, Spain.
Department of Molecular Biology, Section Microbiology, University of León, 24071 León, Spain.
Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2019 Oct;48:8-16. doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2019.02.014. Epub 2019 Mar 30.
Numerous microbial communities live in soil, aquatic habitats, plants, and animal bodies. Microbial genome sequences have revealed that thousands of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are present in different bacteria and filamentous fungi. Many of these BGCs are not expressed in pure cultures in the laboratory. However, a large part of these silent clusters is expressed in nature when complex microbial populations are studied. The encoding specialized metabolites are frequently produced at very low concentrations but still they serve as communication signals that produce important biochemical and differentiation effects on other microorganisms of the consortium. Many specialized metabolites acting as communication signals have been identified, including autoinducers, intergeneric, and interkingdom cues. These signals trigger expression of silent BGCs in other microorganisms, thus providing new compounds with interesting biological and pharmacological activities. Examples of interactions between different bacteria or between bacteria and fungi are described here. Finally, the relevance of the human microbiota and the production in vivo of specialized metabolites of medical interest is discussed.
大量的微生物群落生活在土壤、水生栖息地、植物和动物体内。微生物基因组序列表明，在不同的细菌和丝状真菌中存在数千个生物合成基因簇（BGCs）。这些 BGCs 中有许多在实验室的纯培养中没有表达。然而，当研究复杂的微生物种群时，这些沉默的簇中有很大一部分在自然界中表达。编码特殊代谢物的基因通常以非常低的浓度产生，但它们仍然作为通信信号，对联合体中的其他微生物产生重要的生化和分化作用。已经鉴定出许多作为通信信号的特殊代谢物，包括自诱导物、种间和种间线索。这些信号触发其他微生物中沉默 BGC 的表达，从而提供具有有趣的生物学和药理学活性的新化合物。本文描述了不同细菌之间或细菌与真菌之间的相互作用的例子。最后，讨论了人类微生物组和体内产生具有医学意义的特殊代谢物的相关性。
