Harnessing Specialized Metabolism from Anaerobes

Introduction

Anaerobic bacteria, a group of microorganisms that thrive in the absence of oxygen, have a significant impact on the quality of life on Earth. They play a crucial role in biotechnology and are essential components of the gut microbiota. As such, they are of tremendous importance for human, animal, and environmental health. On the other hand, certain anaerobes can be life-threatening pathogens.

Need for Understanding Specialized Metabolites

In light of this, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of the specialized metabolites of anaerobes, which could function as chemical mediators, virulence factors, and antibiotics. Although genome analyses indicate that anaerobic bacteria hold enormous potential for producing structurally unique compounds, biosynthetic gene clusters are typically downregulated or silent under laboratory conditions.

Challenges in Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology approaches to unearth these cryptic pathways have been hampered by several challenges:

1. Lack of universal activation strategies
2. Cumbersome genetic tractability of anaerobes
3. Incompatibility of standard expression systems with the oxygen-sensitive biosynthetic enzymes

The AnoxyGen Project

The AnoxyGen project seeks to unearth the vast structural wealth of natural products from the anaerobic world and leverage their unique biosynthetic machinery using a highly versatile anaerobic expression platform. This ambitious initiative comprises four work packages aimed at:

1. Refining synthetic biology tools
2. Creating gain-of-function anaerobes
3. Discovering novel drug candidates and virulence factors
4. Engineering biosynthetic pathways to create metabolic diversity

Expected Outcomes

By achieving these objectives, AnoxyGen will grant a comprehensive overview of specialized metabolites and biocatalysts of anaerobes, which have great translational value for medicine, ecology, and biotechnology.

Benefits to Society

In addition to providing valuable methods and tools to the scientific community, this project has the potential to bring significant benefits for the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment.