Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Development and Testing of Species-specific Quantitative PCR Assays for Environmental DNA Applications
Published on: November 5, 2020
New natural product families from an environmental DNA (eDNA) gene cluster
Sean F Brady1, Carol J Chao, Jon Clardy
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-1301, USA.
Abstract:
Uncultured bacteria represent a potentially rich source of new and useful natural products. Studying these natural products requires the development of effective yet straightforward methods to access the small-molecule chemical diversity produced by uncultured bacteria. In this study, DNA extracted directly from soil samples (environmental DNA, eDNA) was used to construct cosmid libraries in Escherichia coli, and these clones were then assayed for the production of antibiosis. A 13 open reading frame (ORF) biosynthetic gene cluster (feeA-M) found in one of the antibacterial active clones, CSLC-2, confers to E. coli the production of two new families of natural products that are derived from long chain N-acyltyrosines. The fee gene cluster and three families of the long chain acyl phenols derived from tyrosine (families 1, 2, and 3) are described.
Related Concept Videos
Genomic DNA in Prokaryotes
Genomic Diversity in Bacteria
Although bacterial genomes are much...
Genomic DNA in Eukaryotes
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Next-generation Sequencing
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features.
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Applications of Molecular Taxonomy

