Mining biosynthetic gene clusters in Virgibacillus genomes

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Genomics
• Drug Discovery

Background:

• Biosynthetic gene clusters yield metabolites with pharmaceutical potential, particularly antimicrobials against multidrug-resistant bacteria.
• The Virgibacillus genus, within Firmicutes, is largely unexplored for its biosynthetic capabilities.
• Red Sea mangrove environments are potential sources of novel bioactive natural products.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the biosynthetic potential of Virgibacillus strains isolated from Red Sea mangrove mud.
• To identify novel antimicrobial agents from unexplored bacterial genera.
• To assess the pharmaceutical industry's interest in metabolites from Red Sea Virgibacillus.

Main Methods:

• Comparative genomic analysis of nine Virgibacillus strains, including Red Sea isolates.
• Orthology analysis to identify core and accessory genomes.
• Focus on identifying and characterizing biosynthetic gene clusters, particularly nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) and polyketide synthases (PKS).

Main Results:

• Virgibacillus sp. Bac332 from the Red Sea exhibited the highest number of unique genes and genomic islands.
• Marine Virgibacillus isolates, including Red Sea strains, are enriched with nonribosomal peptides compared to other species.
• Many identified NRPS are located in potentially horizontally transferred genomic regions.

Conclusions:

• Red Sea Virgibacillus strains possess numerous uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters, indicating potential for novel bioactive compound discovery.
• The presence of modular synthetase units suggests these strains are promising for experimental characterization.
• Future research will focus on elucidating the properties of novel compounds from Red Sea-specific clusters, including trans-AT PKS/NRPS and type III PKS/NRPS.