Microorganisms contribute to the biology and physiology of eukaryotic hosts and affect other organisms through natural products. Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus (XP) living in mutualistic symbiosis with entomopathogenic nematodes generate natural products to mediate bacteria-nematode-insect interactions. However, a lack of systematic analysis of the XP biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) has limited the understanding of how natural products affect interactions between the organisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParasitic nematodes infect different species of animals and plants. Root-knot nematodes are members of the genus , which is distributed worldwide and parasitizes numerous plants, including vegetables, fruits, and crops. To reduce the global burden of nematode infections, only a few chemical therapeutic classes are currently available.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatural products (NPs) from microorganisms have been important sources for discovering new therapeutic and chemical entities. While their corresponding biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) can be easily identified by gene-sequence-similarity-based bioinformatics strategies, the actual access to these NPs for structure elucidation and bioactivity testing remains difficult. Deletion of the gene encoding the RNA chaperone, Hfq, results in strains losing the production of most NPs.
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