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Natural product discovery from the human microbiome
Matthew R Wilson1, Li Zha1, Emily P Balskus2
1From the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
The Journal of Biological Chemistry
|April 9, 2017
Summary
Scientists are exploring natural products made by microbes living in the human body. These microbiome-derived natural products have key roles in host-microbe interactions and offer new avenues for research.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Natural Product Chemistry
- Systems Biology
Background:
- Human-associated microorganisms produce diverse secondary metabolites.
- These metabolites play crucial roles in host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions.
- Understanding these microbiome-derived natural products is currently limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent efforts in uncovering microbiome-derived natural products.
- To describe key approaches for identifying and characterizing these metabolites.
- To discuss the functional roles and challenges in this emerging research area.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of recent discovery efforts.
- Analysis of complementary approaches for metabolite identification.
- Discussion of functional roles and research challenges.
Main Results:
- Several complementary discovery approaches are illuminating microbial "dark matter."
- These efforts are enabling detailed mechanistic studies of metabolite effects.
- The field is advancing our understanding of microbiome-derived natural products.
Conclusions:
- Uncovering microbiome-derived natural products is a rapidly advancing field.
- These natural products have significant potential for understanding host-microbe dynamics.
- Further research is needed to overcome challenges and fully elucidate their roles.