[Synthesis, function, and evolutionary origin of secondary metabolites produced by micro-organisms]

The microbial secondary metabolites are compounds with a wide range of chemical structures, produced mainly by actinomycetales and some fungi, usually in the late growth phase. Although a high proportion of this metabolites are antibiotics, there are also examples with pigment, herbicide and surfactant properties. Its function has been correlated to bacterial pathogenicity and cellular differentiation, however, properties dealing with chelation, hormonal and antitumor activities as well as nutritional reserve have been also reported. As in other examples of cellular compounds, the secondary metabolites are produced from low molecular weight precursors. For this purpose, specific biosynthetic pathways are utilized and regulated by processes which generally affect either the activity or the synthesis of the enzymes involved in it. Considering the secondary metabolites apparently are dispensable compounds, there are difficulties to explain their existence from an evolutionary point of view. Explanations to their existence have gone from laboratory artifacts to those conferring them an adaptative value in the past. It seems that they were maintained due to selective advantages to the producer microorganisms and probably, their sometimes complex biosynthetic pathways, have emerged from primary metabolites and evolved later independently by random mutation, amplification and genetic transfer.