Roles of LuxR-family regulators in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in Actinobacteria.

Actinobacteria are well-known Gram-positive bacteria that produce approximately two-thirds of microbial bioactive natural products (NPs) through secondary metabolism. Usually, genes involved in the biosynthesis of NPs in actinobacteria are clustered, and their expression is regulated by an elaborate and stringent regulatory network formed by diverse regulators. These regulators can be classified into more than 50 superfamilies/families according to conserved amino acid sequences and biological functions. Among them, LuxR family regulators, which are widely distributed in microorganisms and feature an HTH_LUXR domain (PFAM00196, SMART00421), play key roles in quorum sensing (QS), bioluminescence, virulence and secondary metabolism. In this mini-review, we focus on their roles in regulating NP production in actinobacteria. First, the domain architecture and classification of LuxR proteins are summarized on the basis of their size and biological function diversity. Second, the landscape of the roles and action mechanism of LuxR regulators involved in NP production in actinobacteria is presented in detail. Finally, the application of LuxR is described from two perspectives: enhancement of NP production and discovery of novel NPs by engineering LuxR. This mini-review will help us comprehensively understand the role of LuxR in actinobacteria and promote the future application of LuxR family regulators in synthetic biology.