Discovery and Biosynthesis of Bioactive Natural Products from Marine Actinomycetes

Jianhua Ju

CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Bio-resources and Ecology,

South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Natural products remain the best sources for drugs or drug leads. Marine actinomycetes, the underexplored ecological niches, have emerged as an exciting resource for novel bioactive natural products discovery.  Recent advances in deciphering and engineering the biosynthetic pathway governing natural product biosynthesis provide an alternative strategy to optimize the structures of complex natural products. Selected examples from our current research will be discussed on i) discovery of anti-infective and cytotoxic natural products as promising drug leads from marine actinomycetes to highlight structural diversity, and ii) genetic engineering and heterologous expression of the biosynthetic pathways of polypeptide and alkaloid natural products to make new analogues and characterize novel enzymes capable of catalyzing new chemistry.

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