Methodology for awakening the potential secondary metabolic capacity in actinomycetes

Shun Saito; Midori A Arai

doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.69

Methodology for awakening the potential secondary metabolic capacity in actinomycetes

Beilstein J Org Chem. 2024 Apr 10:20:753-766. doi: 10.3762/bjoc.20.69. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Shun Saito¹, Midori A Arai¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan.

Abstract

Secondary metabolites produced by actinomycete strains undoubtedly have great potential for use in applied research areas such as drug discovery. However, it is becoming difficult to obtain novel compounds because of repeated isolation around the world. Therefore, a new strategy for discovering novel secondary metabolites is needed. Many researchers believe that actinomycetes have as yet unanalyzed secondary metabolic activities, and the associated undiscovered secondary metabolite biosynthesis genes are called "silent" genes. This review outlines several approaches to further activate the metabolic potential of actinomycetes.

Keywords: actinomycete; co-culture; heat shock metabolites (HSMs); secondary metabolites; silent genes.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Early Career Scientists (nos. 20K15461 and 23K13897 to S.S.); a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (no. 21H02639 to M.A.A.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); and Grants-in-Aid for Transformative Research Area (A) “Latent Chemical Space” (nos. 23H04880 and 23H04884 to M.A.A.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. M.A.A. thanks the Mitsubishi Foundation. M.A.A. was the recipient of a JSBBA Innovative Research Program Award. S.S. was the recipient of a Noda Institute for Scientific Research (NISR) Young Investigator Research Grant.