Discovering the hidden secondary metabolome of Myxococcus xanthus: a study of intraspecific diversity

As a monophyletic group, the myxobacteria are known to produce a broad spectrum of secondary metabolites. However, the degree of metabolic diversity that can be found within a single species remains unexplored. The model species Myxococcus xanthus produces several metabolites also present in other myxobacterial species, but only one compound unique to M. xanthus has been found to date. Here, we compare the metabolite profiles of 98 M. xanthus strains that originate from 78 locations worldwide and include 20 centimeter-scale isolates from one location. This screen reveals a strikingly high level of intraspecific diversity in the M. xanthus secondary metabolome. The identification of 37 nonubiquitous candidate compounds greatly exceeds the small number of secondary metabolites previously known to derive from this species. These results suggest that M. xanthus may be a promising source of future natural products and that thorough intraspecific screens of other species could reveal many new compounds of interest.