Widespread overuse of antibiotics has led to a decline in the efficacy of these drugs because many pathogens are becoming increasingly to them. Currently, 70 percent of antibiotics, and more than half of all medicines, are derived from microbially-produced natural products–small molecules with unique properties. Ironically, many pharmaceutical companies are scaling back or eliminating metabolite screening programs despite evidence suggesting that a multitude of useful microbial products await discovery. The Mining Microbial Genomes (MMG) research theme searches through microbial genomes to find new metabolites. The goal of the theme is to learn how these molecules are produced in microorganisms and identify uses for the new metabolites discovered.
Recent Publications from MMG
View full list of publications from MMG
From Leaders of the Theme
Scientists will search for these answers by unlocking the vast genetic potential of microbial genomes using sequence-based and metabolomics-based approaches. Because most microorganisms will not grow under standard laboratory conditions, these methods eliminate many of the difficulties involved in traditional culture-based approaches. By accessing microbial DNA isolated directly from the natural environment, the scale of the screening process can be expanded without labor-intensive growth experiments. Once promising targets are identified, researchers conduct a more thorough investigation involving molecular biology, metabolite analysis, metabolic engineering, chemical and enzymatic synthesis, and analysis of host and target organism response.
Success with this approach will ultimately lead to the discovery of novel classes of antibiotics, improved production methods, and better ways to examine antibiotic efficacy in human and animal hosts. In addition, the information gleaned from these studies will improve our ability to annotate the function of genes and predict enzyme products. The theme brings together microbiologists, chemists, and engineers.
