Phylogeny-Guided Approach Yields Glycopeptides with Unique Action

Ana V Cheng; William M Wuest

doi:10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.002

Phylogeny-Guided Approach Yields Glycopeptides with Unique Action

Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2020 May;41(5):297-299. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2020.03.002. Epub 2020 Apr 1.

Authors

Ana V Cheng¹, William M Wuest²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Emory University, 1515 Dickey Dr., Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, Emory University, 1515 Dickey Dr., Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. Electronic address: wwuest@emory.edu.

Abstract

Bacteria are extremely adept at overcoming the effects of antibiotics through a variety of mechanisms. As a result, researchers are constantly searching for antibiotics with new mechanisms of action. Culp and coworkers recently utilized a phylogeny-guided approach to mine the genomes of Actinomycetes species for glycopeptides with novel targets. Their efforts yielded the identification of complestatin and corbomycin as antibiotics with a different target than other glycopeptides.

Keywords: autolysin; biosynthetic gene cluster; glycopeptide; peptidoglycan; phylogeny.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
Cell Wall
Glycopeptides* / pharmacology
Peptidoglycan*
Phylogeny

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Glycopeptides
Peptidoglycan

Grants and funding

R35 GM119426/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States