Discovery and Biosynthesis of Clostyrylpyrones from the Obligate Anaerobe .

Anaerobic bacteria are a promising new source for natural product discovery. Examination of extracts from the obligate anaerobe led to the discovery of a new family of natural products, the clostyrylpyrones. The polyketide synthase-based biosynthetic mechanism of clostyrylpyrones is further proposed on the basis of bioinformatic, gene knockout, biochemical analysis, and heterologous expression studies.

Investigation of secondary metabolism in the industrial butanol hyper-producer Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4.

Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4 (Csa) is a historically significant anaerobic bacterium which can perform saccharolytic fermentations to produce acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE). Recent genomic analyses have highlighted this organism's potential to produce polyketide and nonribosomal peptide secondary metabolites, but little is known regarding the identity and function of these metabolites. This study provides a detailed bioinformatic analysis of seven biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) present in the Csa genome that are predicted to produce polyketides/nonribosomal peptides.

Natural products from anaerobes.

Natural product discovery in the microbial world has historically been biased toward aerobes. Recent in silico analysis demonstrates that genomes of anaerobes encode unexpected biosynthetic potential for natural products, however, chemical data on natural products from the anaerobic world are extremely limited. Here, we review the current body of work on natural products isolated from strictly anaerobic microbes, including recent genome mining efforts to discover polyketides and non-ribosomal peptides from anaerobes.

The industrial anaerobe Clostridium acetobutylicum uses polyketides to regulate cellular differentiation.

Polyketides are an important class of bioactive small molecules valued not only for their diverse therapeutic applications, but also for their role in controlling interesting biological phenotypes in their producing organisms. While numerous polyketides are known to be derived from aerobic organisms, only a single family of polyketides has been identified from anaerobic organisms. Here we uncover a family of polyketides native to the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum, an organism well-known for its historical use as an industrial producer of the organic solvents acetone, butanol, and ethanol.