A metagenomic strategy for harnessing the chemical repertoire of the human microbiome

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aax9176
• Publication Date: 2019-10-03T23:05:14Z
• Authors: Yuki Sugimoto; Francine R. Camacho; Shuo Wang; Pranatchareeya Ch...; Arman Odabas; Abhishek Biswas; Philip D. Jeffrey; Mohamed S. Donia
• Keywords: Human Microbiome Project

Prospecting for drugs in the microbiome The is an important source of natural products that can profoundly influence health and disease host. Sugimoto et al. constructed a modular, probabilistic strategy called MetaBGC to uncover biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) human samples (see Perspective by Henke Clardy). authors found geographic strain-specific distributions BGCs. By zeroing on two type II aromatic polyketides, native organisms were identified, BGCs reconstructed Streptomyces , characterized. When expressed Bacillus subtilis resembled currently used anticancer antibiotics. These polyketides not cytotoxic but had inhibitory activity against oral Gram-positive bacteria, which may reflect niche ecology originating organisms. Science this issue p. eaax9176 ; see also 1309