Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• . While microbial nonribosomal peptides have been the focus of chemical structure metagenomics efforts thus far, it is in principle applicable to other natural product families. The future outlook of this new approach will also be discussed. Keywords: bioinformatics; chemical structure metagenomics

• ; natural products; natural product discovery; nonribosomal peptides; Introduction Natural products present diverse structures to elicit a wide range of biological activities and are of paramount importance to both translational science and basic research. Despite not knowing the underlying active

• approaches have already facilitated the discovery of numerous new bioactive molecules [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and shed light on the scope of past discovery efforts by uncovering select oversampled/underexplored niches in the natural product chemical spaces [37]. While nonribosomal peptides (NRP

Young investigators in natural products chemistry, biosynthesis, and enzymology

• Jeffrey D. Rudolf,
• Lena Barra and
• Takayoshi Awakawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2720–2721, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.229

• clusters, and enzymes, development of chemical probes, biocatalysis and chemoenzymatic total synthesis, enzymatic mechanisms, and computational investigations of chemical structures and reactions. All of the major classes of natural products are represented here: nonribosomal peptides, ribosomally

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of macrocyclic peptides and polyketides via thioesterase-catalyzed macrocyclization

• Senze Qiao,
• Zhongyu Cheng and
• Fuzhuo Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 721–733, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.66

• .20.66 Abstract Chemoenzymatic strategies that combine synthetic and enzymatic transformations offer efficient approaches to yield target molecules, which have been increasingly employed in the synthesis of bioactive natural products. In the biosynthesis of macrocyclic nonribosomal peptides, polyketides

• polyketides; thioesterase; Introduction Nonribosomal peptides, polyketides, and their hybrids exhibit significant diversity and a broad spectrum of bioactivities [1][2][3]. Particularly, macrocycles from these three categories of natural products are vital resources for developing pharmaceuticals and drug

Development of a chemical scaffold for inhibiting nonribosomal peptide synthetases in live bacterial cells

• Fumihiro Ishikawa,
• Sho Konno,
• Hideaki Kakeya and
• Genzoh Tanabe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 445–451, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.39

• ; Introduction Nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) exhibit various biological activities and have been used as therapeutic agents, such as antibiotics, anticancer agents, and immunosuppressants [1]. Additionally, NRPs function as virulence factors, such as siderophores and genotoxins [2]. Therefore, inhibiting their

Secondary metabolites of Bacillus subtilis impact the assembly of soil-derived semisynthetic bacterial communities

• Heiko T. Kiesewalter,
• Carlos N. Lozano-Andrade,
• Mikael L. Strube and
• Ákos T. Kovács

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2983–2998, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.248

• , Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark 10.3762/bjoc.16.248 Abstract Secondary metabolites provide Bacillus subtilis with increased competitiveness towards other microorganisms. In particular, nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) have an enormous antimicrobial potential by causing cell lysis, perforation of fungal membranes

• to understand their ecological role. Keywords: Bacillus subtilis; bacterial community; chemical ecology; Lysinibacillus fusiformis; nonribosomal peptides; surfactin; Introduction In nature, bacteria live in complex communities where they interact with various other microorganisms. Most microbial

• Bacillus spp. produce various SMs [33][34]. The most prominent and bioactive SMs are nonribosomal peptides (NRPs), of which isoforms belong to the families of surfactins, fengycins, or iturins [35][36] (Figure 1). They are biosynthesised by large enzyme complexes, nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs

Enzyme-instructed morphological transition of the supramolecular assemblies of branched peptides

• Dongsik Yang,
• Hongjian He and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2709–2718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.221

• utilizes nonlinear peptides. For example, nonribosomal peptides exist in other geometries, such as branched (e.g., bleomycin) or cyclic peptides (e.g., vancomycin) [31]. While the understanding of the synthesis of branched peptides is well-developed, the self-assembly and enzymatic conversion of branched

Herpetopanone, a diterpene from Herpetosiphon aurantiacus discovered by isotope labeling

• Xinli Pan,
• Nicole Domin,
• Sebastian Schieferdecker,
• Hirokazu Kage,
• Martin Roth and
• Markus Nett

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 2458–2465, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.242

• predatory bacterium Herpetosiphon aurantiacus 114-95T as a test organism. This strain is capable to produce a variety of polyketides and nonribosomal peptides [13][14][15] and possesses pathways to supply specific building blocks for these natural products [16]. Furthermore, genomic analyses revealed that H

Streptopyridines, volatile pyridine alkaloids produced by Streptomyces sp. FORM5

• Ulrike Groenhagen,
• Michael Maczka,
• Jeroen S. Dickschat and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1421–1432, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.146

• polyketides, nonribosomal peptides, terpenoids, alkaloids, lipids and others. Such compounds became a major source of biologically active natural products as antibiotics, cytotoxic compounds, immunosuppressants etc. In addition, actinomycetes are also able to produce and release a wide variety of volatile