Unearthing "Sweet" Secrets: Recent Advances in Novel Actinomycetes-Derived Glycosides and Their Bioactivities

Glycosides constitute an essential proportion of bioactive natural products and clinical drugs. The sugar moieties within the glycosides serve not only as critical pharmacophores but also enhance pharmacokinetic properties and druggability. While most natural glycosides have traditionally been derived from plants, microbial sources─particularly Actinomycetes─are emerging as a rich reservoir of structurally diverse and pharmaceutically potent glycosides. The advancing technologies have been unearthing cryptic glycosides with unprecedented bioactivities. This review comprehensively summarizes Actinomycetes-derived glycosides reported over the past decade. In addition to encompassing various structural types of aglycones and sugar moieties, the review also highlights novel methodologies for identifying and isolating glycosides, presenting crucial findings for analyzing structure-activity relationships and enabling biosynthetic production of bioactive glycosidic compounds.