Computational Tools for Discovering and Engineering Natural Product Biosynthetic Pathways

Hengqian Ren; Chengyou Shi; Huimin Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2019.100795

Computational Tools for Discovering and Engineering Natural Product Biosynthetic Pathways

iScience. 2020 Jan 24;23(1):100795. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.100795. Epub 2019 Dec 27.

Authors

Hengqian Ren¹, Chengyou Shi¹, Huimin Zhao²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
² Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: zhao5@illinois.edu.

Abstract

Natural products (NPs), also known as secondary metabolites, are produced in bacteria, fungi, and plants. NPs represent a rich source of antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer agents. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics unveiled nature's great potential for synthesizing numerous NPs that may confer unprecedented structural and biological features. However, discovering novel bioactive NPs by genome mining remains a challenge. Moreover, even with interesting bioactivity, the low productivity of many NPs significantly limits their practical applications. Here we discuss the progress in developing bioinformatics tools for efficient discovery of bioactive NPs. In addition, we highlight computational methods for optimizing the productivity of NPs of pharmaceutical importance.

Keywords: Bioengineering; Bioinformatics; Biological Sciences; Metabolic Engineering.

Publication types

Review

Abstract

Publication types

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