MariClus: Your One-Stop Platform for Information on Marine Natural Products, Their Gene Clusters and Producing Organisms.

Background: The marine environment hosts the vast majority of living species and marine microbes that produce natural products with great potential in providing lead compounds for drug development. With over 70% of Earth's surface covered in water and the high interaction rate associated with liquid environments, this has resulted in many marine natural product discoveries. Our improved understanding of the biosynthesis of these molecules, encoded by gene clusters, along with increased genomic information will aid us in uncovering even more novel compounds.

Genetic Relationships in the Toxin-Producing Fungal Endophyte, Using Polyketide Synthase and Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthase Genes.

The legume hosts a fungal endophyte,  , which produces secondary metabolites (SM), including the toxin swainsonine. Polyketide synthase (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS) enzymes are associated with biosynthesis of fungal SM. To better understand the origins of the SM, an unannotated genome of was assessed for protein sequences similar to known PKS and NRPS enzymes of fungi.