Figure. 2. Genome Mining Strategies for Natural Product Discovery
Figure. 2. Genome Mining Strategies for Natural Product Discovery: Genome mining approaches leverage DNA extraction, sequencing, and bioinformatics to uncover the biosynthetic potential of microorganisms, including uncultivable microbes. For uncultivable species, prioritized biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are explored through either targeted heterologous expression to produce natural products (NPs) or direct chemical synthesis to create synthetic bioinformatics NP like compounds. Examples include the discovery of malacidins Bauman et al. (2021) through heterologous expression and humimycins Liu et al. (2022) through synthetic bioinformatics approaches. While the synthetic bioinformatics method bypasses microbial culturing and gene expression, its challenges lie in the accuracy of computational predictions and the complexity of chemical synthesis. Abbreviations: NRPS, non- ribosomal peptide synthetize.