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Updated: Jun 2, 2026
07:20
Bioprospecting of Extremophilic Microorganisms to Address Environmental Pollution
Published on: December 30, 2021
Biodiversity and chemodiversity: future perspectives in bioprospecting
B T Ramesha1, Jürg Gertsch, G Ravikanth
1Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore 560 065, India.
Current Drug Targets
|May 13, 2011
Summary
Bioprospecting for new medicines faces challenges due to declining discovery rates. This study suggests biological exploration remains vast and advocates for intelligent screening methods over brute-force approaches to enhance drug discovery.
Area of Science:
- Bioprospecting
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- Biological and chemical diversity have historically yielded crucial bioactive molecules.
- Recent bioprospecting efforts show declining success in discovering novel compounds.
- Concerns exist that biodiversity may not directly correlate with chemical and functional diversity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critique the current understanding of biodiversity and chemodiversity in bioprospecting.
- To analyze the relationship between biological diversity, chemical diversity, and functional redundancy.
- To propose advanced strategies for future bioprospecting endeavors.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of simple models to understand biodiversity-chemodiversity relationships.
- Evaluation of current high-throughput screening (HTS) methodologies.
- Review of intelligent, non-random bioprospecting approaches.
Main Results:
- Biological exploration space may still be significantly underexplored.
- Brute-force HTS is insufficient and cost-ineffective for novel compound discovery.
- Intelligent bioprospecting strategies can accelerate the discovery of bioactive molecules.
Conclusions:
- The relationship between biological diversity and chemodiversity requires nuanced understanding for effective bioprospecting.
- Future drug discovery necessitates a shift from solely HTS to more targeted, intelligent approaches.
- Optimized bioprospecting strategies are crucial for sustained innovation in identifying valuable bioactive compounds.
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