Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
Genes (Basel). 2019 Apr 30;10(5):328. doi: 10.3390/genes10050328.
In filamentous fungi, genes in secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways are generally clustered. In the case of those pathways involved in nonribosomal peptide production, a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene is commonly found as a main element of the cluster. Large multifunctional enzymes are encoded by members of this gene family that produce a broad spectrum of bioactive compounds. In this research, we applied genome-based identification of nonribosomal peptide biosynthetic gene clusters in the family . For this purpose, we used the whole genome sequences of species from the genera , , and . To identify and characterize the clusters, different bioinformatics and phylogenetic approaches, as well as PCR-based methods were used. In all genomes studied, two highly conserved NRPS genes (one monomodular and one multimodular) were identified and their potential products were predicted to be siderophores. Expression analysis of two species ( and ) confirmed the accuracy of the annotations and proved that the genes in both clusters are expressed. Furthermore, a phylogenetic analysis showed that both NRPS genes of the formed distinct and well supported clades in their respective phylograms, where they grouped with other known NRPSs involved in siderophore production. Overall, these findings improve our understanding of the diversity and evolution of NRPS biosynthetic pathways in the family .
在丝状真菌中，次级代谢产物生物合成途径中的基因通常聚集在一起。在涉及非核糖体肽生产的途径中，通常可以发现非核糖体肽合成酶（NRPS）基因作为该簇的主要元件。该基因家族的成员编码的大型多功能酶可产生广泛的生物活性化合物。在这项研究中，我们应用基于基因组的方法来鉴定家族中的非核糖体肽生物合成基因簇。为此，我们使用了来自属、、和的种的全基因组序列。为了识别和表征这些簇，我们使用了不同的生物信息学和系统发育方法以及基于 PCR 的方法。在所研究的所有基因组中，鉴定出了两个高度保守的 NRPS 基因（一个单模块和一个多模块），并预测其潜在产物为铁载体。对两个种（和）的表达分析证实了注释的准确性，并证明了两个簇中的基因都有表达。此外，系统发育分析表明，的两个 NRPS 基因在各自的系统发育树中形成了独特且得到很好支持的分支，它们与其他已知的参与铁载体生产的 NRPS 一起分组。总的来说，这些发现提高了我们对家族中非核糖体肽生物合成途径多样性和进化的理解。
