Important Role of Bacterial Nucleoid-Associated Proteins in Discovery of Novel Secondary Metabolites

Microbial secondary metabolites (SMs) serve as the main source of natural antibiotics. Bioinformatics analyses reveal that multiple secondary metabolites biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) exist in the genomes of fungi and bacteria but the vast majority remains silent due to the control of intricate regulatory networks. An in-depth comprehension of these regulatory processes is required for the activation of cryptic gene clusters. Among them, the regulations at the proteomic level originating from epigenetic modifications and their correlations with secondary metabolite biosynthesis have gained increasing interest recently, especially the modifications on bacterial nucleoid-associated proteins. This article highlights the recent advances and important roles of bacterial nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) in the biosynthesis of SMs. Developing new tools around NAPs would be significant for the discovery of novel bioactive compounds in microbial resources.