Metabolomics methods for the synthetic biology of secondary metabolism

Nguyen, Q.-T., Merlo, M. E., Medema, M. H., Jankevics, A., Breitling, R. and Takano, E. (2012) Metabolomics methods for the synthetic biology of secondary metabolism. FEBS Letters, 586(15), pp. 2177-2183. (doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2012.02.008)

Abstract

Many microbial secondary metabolites are of high biotechnological value for medicine, agriculture, and the food industry. Bacterial genome mining has revealed numerous novel secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters, which encode the potential to synthesize a large diversity of compounds that have never been observed before. The stimulation or “awakening” of this cryptic microbial secondary metabolism has naturally attracted the attention of synthetic microbiologists, who exploit recent advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis to achieve unprecedented control over metabolic pathways. One of the indispensable tools in the synthetic biology toolbox is metabolomics, the global quantification of small biomolecules. This review illustrates the pivotal role of metabolomics for the synthetic microbiology of secondary metabolism, including its crucial role in novel compound discovery in microbes, the examination of side products of engineered metabolic pathways, as well as the identification of major bottlenecks for the overproduction of compounds of interest, especially in combination with metabolic modeling. We conclude by highlighting remaining challenges and recent technological advances that will drive metabolomics towards fulfilling its potential as a cornerstone technology of synthetic microbiology.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Breitling, Professor Rainer
• Authors: Nguyen, Q.-T., Merlo, M. E., Medema, M. H., Jankevics, A., Breitling, R., and Takano, E.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Molecular Biosciences
• Journal Name: FEBS Letters
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0014-5793
• ISSN (Online): 1873-3468
• Published Online: 15 February 2012
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2012 Elsevier
• First Published: First published in FEBS Letters 586(15):2177-2183
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.