Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 13, 2026

From a Natural Product to Its Biosynthetic Gene Cluster: A Demonstration Using Polyketomycin from Streptomyces diastatochromogenes Tü6028
Published on: January 13, 2017
Lichen Biosynthetic Gene Clusters. Part I. Genome Sequencing Reveals a Rich Biosynthetic Potential
Robert L Bertrand1, Mona Abdel-Hameed1, John L Sorensen1
1Department of Chemistry , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Manitoba R3T 2N2 , Canada.
Abstract:
Lichens are symbionts of fungi and algae that produce diverse secondary metabolites with useful properties. Little is known of lichen natural product biosynthesis because of the challenges of working with lichenizing fungi. We describe the first attempt to comprehensively profile the genetic secondary metabolome of a lichenizing fungus. An Illumina platform combined with the Antibiotics and Secondary Metabolites Analysis Shell (FungiSMASH, version 4.0) was used to sequence and annotate assembled contigs of the fungal partner of Cladonia uncialis. Up to 48 putative gene clusters are described comprising type I and type III polyketide synthases (PKS), nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), hybrid PKS-NRPS, and terpene synthases. The number of gene clusters revealed by this work dwarfs the number of known secondary metabolites from C. uncialis, suggesting that lichenizing fungi have an unexplored biosynthetic potential.
Related Concept Videos
Amino Acid Biosynthetic Pathways
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Genomics
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...
Cis-regulatory Sequences

