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Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Genome-based bioprospecting of microbes for new therapeutics Sergey B Zotchev1, Olga N Sekurova1 and Leonard Katz2 Bioprospecting of natural sources for new medicines has a long and successful history, exemplified by the fact that over 50% of all drugs currently on the market are either derived from or inspired by natural products. However, development of new natural product-based therapeutics has been on the decline over the past 20 years, mainly owing to frequent re-discovery of already known compounds coupled with high costs for screening, characterization and development. With the onset of the genomic era allowing rapid sequencing and analysis of bacterial and fungal genomes, it became evident that these organisms possess ‘hidden treasures’ in the form of gene clusters potentially governing biosynthesis of novel biologically active compounds. This review highlights current progress in mining for and expression of these gene clusters, which may revolutionize the drug discovery pipelines in the near future. Addresses 1 Department of Biotechnology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondeim, Norway 2 Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, USA Corresponding author: Zotchev, Sergey B ([email protected]) Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 This review comes from a themed issue on Pharmaceutical biotechnology Edited by Francis E Nano and José F Rodrı́guez For a complete overview see the Issue and the Editorial Available online 3rd May 2012 0958-1669/$ – see front matter, # 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2012.04.002 Microbial genomes and secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters Drug discovery from natural products has for a long time been dependent on the high-throughput screening of extracts prepared from microorganisms, plants and higher organisms. The former, in particular bacteria of the order Actinomycetales, and filamentous fungi, proved to be extremely rich sources of new antibiotics, anti-cancer therapeutics, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and so on. Over the years, however, the discovery of novel compounds from these sources dropped dramatically, mostly because of the frequent isolation of the already known compounds. This tendency made some to believe that microorganisms as sources for new therapeutics have been exhausted. This view has been challenged with the onset of genomics era, when rapid sequencing of genes and genomes became a routine. Genome sequencing and analysis of actinomycete www.sciencedirect.com bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) published in 2002 [1] revealed unprecedented potential of this microbe to synthesize compounds previously undetected by conventional methods of cultivation, extraction, and bioactivity testing. Apparently, genes encoding biosynthesis of these compounds were expressed at a very low level (or not at all) in laboratory conditions, making the detection extremely difficult. Soon after, scientists from Ecopia (now part of Thallion Pharmaceuticals Inc.) published their work on genome-guided discovery of novel compounds based on genomic snapshots allowing detection of antibiotic biosynthesis genes. This has been followed by manipulation of media and growth conditions leading to expression of cryptic gene clusters, and production of potentially novel enediynes [2]. Recent advances in DNA sequencing made the ‘genomic snapshot’ approach obsolete, providing almost complete genome sequences available for mining of genes of interest in a matter of weeks. The task of mining remained, however, quite laborious, until the development of a software antiSMASH [3], that allows to efficiently detect secondary metabolite gene clusters in the genomes of bacteria and fungi. antiSMASH is also able to partially predict types of compounds that can be produced if the gene cluster is fully functional. Since the secondary metabolite gene clusters are abundant, especially in the genomes of actinomycete bacteria, some kind of prioritization will be required in order to minimize rediscovery, and to focus on the potentially novel and promising compounds. The latter can be assisted by an array of the pathway analysis and prediction tools recently reviewed by Medema et al. [4]. Gene cluster and pathway analyses also provide important information that can guide researchers in the identification and isolation of compounds specified by particular gene clusters. For example, Kersten et al. [5] have recently described a method of peptidogenomics, where structures of peptides predicted to be synthesized via both ribosomal and non-ribosomal pathways are correlated with mass spectrometry of cell extracts. This method allows rapid identification of new peptide-based natural products, simultaneously linking them to corresponding gene clusters that can be used for boosting the compounds’ yields, as described in the section below. Activation and heterologous expression of secondary metabolite biosynthesis genes As mentioned above, low abundance of natural products often prevents them from being discovered during conventional screening. Furthermore, even if a compound is detected, low yield and unstable production may render attempts at purification, structure elucidation and comprehensive biological testing extremely inefficient and Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 942 Pharmaceutical biotechnology time consuming. A number of genomic-based techniques are currently being employed to increase titers. One is based on the fact that secondary metabolite gene clusters almost always contain regulatory genes, which control expression of structural biosynthetic genes. These pathway-specific regulators can be manipulated in order to increase the production of cluster-specified compound through, for example, inactivation of a repressor, or overexpression of a positive regulator. Using the repressor deletion approach, Gottelt et al. [6] succeeded in expression of a silent gene cluster in S. coelicolor governing biosynthesis of a previously undetected compound with antibacterial activity. Overexpression of a transcriptional activator from an orphan gene cluster in Streptomyces ambofaciens resulted in production of a novel macrolide with antitumor activity [7]. Tandem amplification of a biosynthesis gene cluster also led to increased production levels of an antibiotic. Murakami et al. [8] introduced the oriT-like recombination sites RsA and RsB from Streptomyces kanamyceticus into the genome of S. coelicolor to flank the gene cluster responsible for biosynthesis of the polyketide actinorhodin, as well as the gene zouA that encodes a TraA-like relaxase and demonstrated a 20-fold increase in the titers of actinorhodin resulting from tandem amplification of the act genes. These approaches can only be attempted if the producing host is genetically tractable. Although methods for genetic manipulation have been developed for several strains, many actinomycetes have proven to be refractory to the introduction of heterologous DNA, or have exhibited resistance to all usable drugs for genetic selection. Hence, an alternative approach to detection of potentially novel products is through the heterologous expression of the corresponding gene clusters. While many different microbial hosts have been used for expression of heterologous genes, E. coli, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and several Streptomyces species have been shown to Figure 1 Microbial isolate DNA Bioinformatics Tools development Genome reduction Host Precursors pathways engineering Superhost Product Gene clusters No product BstXI BamHI EcoRI BstXI Nhel AmR Promoter exchange Regulators BamHI attP int Testing BstXI EcoRI Apol Re-factoring Re-design and complete synthesis BstXI BamHI pCL9-Phz2 BamHI BstXI Recombinant plasmids Current Opinion in Biotechnology Overall tentative scheme for genome-based bioprospecting. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 www.sciencedirect.com Genome-based bioprospecting Zotchev, Sekurova and Katz 943 express large clusters leading to the production of a small molecule secondary metabolite at reasonable initial titers. E. coli has the advantage of the availability of numerous vectors (plasmids, cosmids, BACs) and promoters for heterologous expression, and can express genes with G + C codon bias as high as 73% [9], but does not recognize promoters from Streptomyces. In addition, some precursors required for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites (e.g. methylmalonyl-CoA for the biosynthesis of many polyketides) are not produced in E. coli. Finally, it is known that type I polyketide synthase proteins from Streptomyces do not always fold correctly in E. coli [10]. S. cerevisiae has been used to express a heterologous polyketide synthase gene from a fungus to produce the polyketide 6-methylsalicylic acid [11] and is also being developed for expression of other heterologous genes. Employing a series of E. coli vectors carrying yeast promoters for the initial cloning of selected genes from random sources and a YAC system for the subsequent assembly and expression of the genes in yeast, Naesby et al. [12] demonstrated production of several flavonoids in S. cerevisiae (Figure 1). Streptomyces have a long history of use as hosts for the production of secondary metabolites from heterologous sources, dating to 1984 when a strain of Streptomyces parvulus produced the polyketide actinorhodin after the cloning of the corresponding gene cluster from the producing host S. coelicolor [13]. In 2010 Baltz reviewed the heterologous production of 17 secondary metabolites of differing classes (polyketides, aminoglycosides, glycopeptides, etc.) from different actinomycete sources in 14 Streptomyces hosts, representing variants of 7 different species [14]. Additional reports have appeared describing heterologous gene expression in Streptomyces since then. Recent efforts have focused on improving streptomycete hosts for production of heterologous products by deleting genes encoding the biosynthesis of native secondary metabolites. Gomez-Escribano and Bibb deleted four gene clusters encoding the biosynthesis of actinorhodin, prodiginine, CPK and CDA from the S. coelicolor M145 chromosome and introduced mutations into rpoB, and demonstrated that the ‘improved’ host exhibited significant increase in the titer of heterologously produced chloramphenicol and congocidine compared to the parental strain after the respective biosynthesis clusters were introduced into the two hosts [15]. Komatsu et al. deleted 1.4 MB of non-essential DNA, representing ca. 18% of the genome, from the ends of the Streptomyces avermitilis linear chromosome and demonstrated an absence of secondary metabolite production from this strain [16]. When used as a host for heterologous gene expression, they showed substantial improvement in the titers of cephamycin and streptomycin over those produced in the parental strain. In general, Streptomyces vectors and promoters exist for the expression of heterologous DNA on autonomously replicating high and low www.sciencedirect.com copy number plasmids or in the chromosome after sitespecific integration in a variety of phage or plasmid attachment sites in many Streptomyces hosts. In addition, a number of selective markers as well as methods to introduce DNA, including electroporation or conjugation from E. coli have been developed for a large number of Streptomyces hosts. Synthetic biology approaches to heterologous expression of new clusters Gene clusters identified that are thought to produce novel compounds can be cloned directly into any of the hosts mentioned above, but it is not likely that they will be expressed in E. coli or S. cerevisiae without major genetic engineering efforts. If the source of the cluster is Streptomyces, it is possible that the incoming genes will be expressed and compound will be detected, particularly if an improved or minimized host is employed. There is also a greater likelihood that expression (and compound detection) will be achieved if the host producing strain is a streptomycete, in particular one of the strains described in the preceding section. However, in cases when gene clusters originate from bacteria phylogenetically distinct from streptomycetes, a considerable effort may be required to achieve their expression and production of compounds they specify. In a recent review, Medema et al. suggested a way how such clusters can be rebuilt, or ‘re-factored’, to achieve optimal performance [17]. Definitely, synthetic biology can and will be employed to address the potential problems with codon usage, promoter recognition by new hosts’ sigma factors, as well as difficulties with translation that may arise from suboptimal binding of hosts’ ribosomes to heterologous Shine–Dalgarno (SD) sequences on mRNAs [18]. As for any other synthetic biology application, generation of well-characterized ‘parts’ (i.e. promoters, SD sequences, genes, terminators) and ‘devices’ (i.e. regulatory circuits and defined gene sets, for example, for precursor biosynthesis) to be used for cluster re-factoring will be of pivotal importance. Most of the currently available standardized synthetic biology parts are designed for E. coli, and will most probably not function properly in streptomycetes. Another problem for the expression of heterologous gene cluster in Streptomyces is the diversity among members of this genus of bacteria. Different species of Streptomyces will possess a variety of secondary metabolite gene clusters and co-evolved precursor biosynthetic pathways. As well, the different species can have different sigma factors and 16S rRNA sequences that affect transcription and translation of foreign genes. All these factors are important for heterologous gene expression, leading to successful functional expression of a particular gene cluster in one host but not the other [14]. Ideally, a single streptomycete host shall be developed for synthetic biologydriven and genome-based drug discovery, which would have following features: (i) genetically tractable, with a variety of vectors/markers available; (ii) all endogenous Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 Modern methods for DNA assembly. Method Principle Advantages Disadvantages Applications examples Reference www.sciencedirect.com SLIC (Sequence and Ligase Independent Cloning) 30 exonuclease and polymerase activities of T4 DNA polymerase and ca. 25-bp homology at the ends of DNA parts - standardized - scarless - mostly sequence and ligase-independent - limitation in size of final DNA molecule (max. 20 kb) - strong secondary structures at the ends of parts can interfere with DNA assembly Rapid method for creating of recombinant plasmids, generating multiprotein complex production [21,22] [21] ‘Gibson’ ligation Isothermal one-pot reaction based on activities of T5 exonuclease, Phusion DNA polymerase and Taq ligase; All parts contain ca. 25-bp homologous flanking sequences - standardized scarless mostly sequence-independent multi-part one-pot isothermal reaction big assemblies up to 300 kb reported - expensive enzyme mix - parts smaller than 250bp should be avoided - strong secondary structures at the ends of parts can interfere with DNA assembly Creation of combinatorial library of promoter and gene cassettes for pathway engineering [24] [23] CPEC (Circular Polymerase Extension Cloning) Single PCR cycle without primers, DNA parts contain 25-bp homologous ends, reaction is catalyzed by Phusion DNA polymerase - standardized scarless largely sequence-independent multi-part assembly is possible single enzyme is needed can be useful in cases of DNA parts with strong secondary structures owing to high temperature of the reaction - PCR-introduced mutations are possible, especially for DNA assemblies larger then 10-kb - the method is still not ideal for sequences with many repeats or GC-rich DNA Cloning of complex combinatorial libraries and pathways [25] [25] Golden Gate assembly and variants Use of restriction enzymes (type IIS endonucleases, e.g. BsaI) - standardized quasi-scarless one-step restriction-ligation reaction homology of DNA parts is not necessary - multi-part assembly is possible - only partly sequence-independent, as internal sites for restriction enzymes should be avoided in all parts for assembly Generating libraries of recombinant genes [27] [26,27] Bio BricksTM assembly and variants Simultaneously performed restriction digest and ligation reactions - standardized - cheap and simple - kits are available - scars in DNA sequence are unavoidable - laborious for multi-parts assemblies For large-scale assemblies by mixing and matching parts from Registry of Standard Biological parts [29] [28] SLiCE (Seamless Ligation Cloning Extract) Assembly of DNA molecules in single in vitro recombination reaction using bacterial RecA-deficient cell extracts, l Red recombination system enhances the efficiency of cloning - Not tested for multi-part assembly Not tested for high-GC DNA assembly Not tested for assembly of large (>4 kb) parts General cloning method for creating recombinant plasmids [30] [30] fast one-tube reaction inexpensive mostly sequence-independent seamless high fidelity 944 Pharmaceutical biotechnology Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 Table 1 [34] Complete assembly of chromosomes [35] - useful for assembly of large DNA molecules DNA assembly in Bacillus (domino method) In vivo DNA assembly in B. subtilis using specific integrative vectors - laborious sequential time-consuming long homologous overlaps for recombination are required [31] - very accurate and efficient - parallel multi-part assembly - very large (bacterial chromosome-size) assemblies possible TAR (TransformationAssisted Recombination) and modifications In vivo assembly via homologous recombination in S. cerevisae DNA parts must contain homologous overlaps of 25-40 bp - laborious compared to the in vitro methods Assembly of entire synthetic microbial genomes [32] Pathway assembly [15,33] Genome-based bioprospecting Zotchev, Sekurova and Katz 945 www.sciencedirect.com (active) secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters deleted; (iii) engineered and controllable pathways for biosynthesis of a variety of secondary metabolite precursors; (iv) engineered catabolic pathways allowing utilization of a variety of cheap nutrients; (v) re-designed developmental program that is de-coupled from secondary metabolism and allowing rapid and significant accumulation of biomass without the loss of productivity. Once parts, devices and optimized hosts for heterologous cluster expression become available, there still remains a problem of efficient cloning of the clusters, which usually span 20–150 kb of DNA. Construction of gene libraries, screening them for specific clusters, and stitching clusters together from parts scattered between different clones has become obsolete. Methods for assembly of DNA – genes, biosynthetic pathways and even entire genomes – from small parts have been developed recently, and are now important new tools for synthetic biology. These techniques enable not only the reconstruction of natural pathways but also allow the creation of new pathways with predictable properties from individual parts and devices. Modern techniques for DNA assembly could be conditionally divided into methods using restriction enzymes, such as Golden Gate, Bio Brick or more recently BglBricks, as well as sequence-independent protocols, such as Gibson isothermal assembly, SLIC and SPEC (see Table 1 for references). In vivo DNA assembly in yeast and Bacillus proved to be useful for bigger and more complex (e.g. chromosome) assemblies. Successful assembly of antibiotic biosynthesis gene clusters in yeast with subsequent transfer to Streptomyces host and heterologous expression was recently demonstrated by Shao et al. [15]. An overview of these methods is given in Table 1. It can be envisaged, that using the aforementioned technologies, gene clusters may be both assembled in a suitable vector, and re-assembled by combining the original genes amplified from bacterial genomes with predefined parts that will ensure their functionality. DNA synthesis represents an attractive alternative to cluster reassembly. Although still rather expensive, this approach allows unprecedented freedom in terms of choosing hostoptimized codon usage and regulatory elements to provide for optimal performance. Bioinformatics tools for gene design become increasingly available (e.g. GeneDesigner, https://www.dna20.com/genedesigner2/), and will greatly assist in cluster re-factoring, ultimately leading to the discovery of novel bioactive compounds and thus creating new opportunities for drug discovery. Conclusion New generation sequencing and innovative bioinformatics allowing rapid access to and analyses of microbial genomes have provided a glimpse of ‘hidden treasures’, manifested in biosynthetic genes for hereto undetected and potentially valuable natural products. Most of these genes, however, remain silent in laboratory conditions, Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 946 Pharmaceutical biotechnology and must be heterologously expressed and/or activated in order to ensure production of respective secondary metabolites in quantities sufficient for structure elucidation and biological testing. Although several success stories have been reported recently [6,7], reliably harnessing the ‘silent’ biosynthetic genes on a large scale remains a challenging task, especially in bacteria that are difficult to manipulate genetically. Heterologous expression in a defined genetically tractable bacterial host remains the best option, but in many cases both transcriptional and translational signals in the gene clusters foreign to the host must be replaced. Here, synthetic biology will definitely play a major role in re-factoring of the clusters in order to gain control over their functioning. Smart cluster re-design [4,18,19], molecular genetic tools, characterized ‘parts’ and ‘devices’ that are being developed for bacteria [15,20], coupled to the plummeting costs of DNA synthesis will soon open new possibilities for drug discovery based on realization of bacterial genetic potential to synthesize bioactive compounds. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Research Council of Norway and the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (UC Berkeley) for financial support. References and recommended reading Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as: of special interest of outstanding interest 1. Bentley SD, Chater KF, Cerdeño-Tárraga AM, Challis GL, Thomson NR, James KD, Harris DE, Quail MA, Kieser H, Harper D et al.: Complete genome sequence of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). Nature 2002, 417:141-147. 2. Zazopoulos E, Huang K, Staffa A, Liu W, Bachmann BO, Nonaka K, Ahlert J, Thorson JS, Shen B, Farnet CM: A genomics-guided approach for discovering and expressing cryptic metabolic pathways. Nat Biotechnol 2003, 21:187-190. This paper demonstrates, for the first time, the power of genome-based bioprospecting. Medema MH, Blin K, Cimermancic P, de Jager V, Zakrzewski P, Fischbach MA, Weber T, Takano E, Breitling R: antiSMASH: rapid identification, annotation and analysis of secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters in bacterial and fungal genome sequences. Nucleic Acids Res 2011, 39(Web Server issue):W339-W346. A very useful web-based software for the discovery of secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters in microbial genomes. 3. 4. Medema MH, van Raaphorst R, Takano E, Breitling R: Computational tools for the synthetic design of biochemical pathways. Nat Rev Microbiol 2012, 10:191-202. 5. Kersten RD, Yang YL, Xu Y, Cimermancic P, Nam SJ, Fenical W, Fischbach MA, Moore BS, Dorrestein PC: A mass spectrometry-guided genome mining approach for natural product peptidogenomics. Nat Chem Biol 2011, 7:794-802. 6. Gottelt M, Kol S, Gomez-Escribano JP, Bibb M, Takano E: Deletion of a regulatory gene within the cpk gene cluster reveals novel antibacterial activity in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). Microbiology 2010, 156:2343-2353. 7. Laureti L, Song L, Huang S, Corre C, Leblond P, Challis GL, Aigle B: Identification of a bioactive 51-membered macrolide complex Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23:941–947 by activation of a silent polyketide synthase in Streptomyces ambofaciens. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2011, 108:6258-6263. The two articles above demonstrate activation of silent gene clusters for biosynthesis of new secondary metabolites through manipulation of pathway-specific regulatory genes. 8. Murakami T, Burian Y, Yanai K, Bibb M, Thompson C: A system for the targeted amplification of bacterial gene clusters multiplies antibiotic yield in Streptomyces coelicolor. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2011, 108:16020-16025. 9. Kao C, Katz L, Khosla C: Engineered biosynthesis of a complete macrolactone in a heterologous host. Science 1994, 265:509-512. First demonstration of a complete biosynthesis of an antibiotic precursor in Escherichia coli using Saccharopolyspora erythraea polyketide synthase genes. 10. Betancor L, Fernández MJ, Weissman KJ, Leadlay PF: Improved catalytic activity of a purified multienzyme from a modular polyketide synthase after coexpression with Streptomyces chaperonins in Escherichia coli. Chembiochem 2008, 9:2962-2966. 11. Mutka SC, Bondi SM, Carney JR, Da Silva NA, Kealey JT: Metabolic pathway engineering for complex polyketide biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEMS Yeast Res 2006, 6:40-47. 12. 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