Harnessing synthetic biology based strategies for engineered biosynthesis of nucleoside natural products in actinobacteria

Authors: GONG, RONG - University Of Wuhan; YU, LE - University Of Wuhan; Price, Neil; HE, XINYI - Jiaotong University; DENG, ZIXIN - Jiaotong University; CHEN, WENQING - University Of Wuhan

Submitted to: Biotechnology Advances
Publication Type: Literature Review
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/25/2020
Publication Date: 12/1/2020
Citation: Gong, R., Yu, L., Price, N.P., He, X., Deng, Z., Chen, W. 2020. Harnessing synthetic biology based strategies for engineered biosynthesis of nucleoside natural products in actinobacteria. Biotechnology Advances. 46. Article 107673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2020.107673.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2020.107673

Interpretive Summary: Finding new antibiotics is becoming more important as bacteria become resistant to the older, existing antibiotics already in use. Historically, an excellent source of antibiotics has been from soil-dwelling bacteria called Actinobacteria. Actinobacteria produce many different natural products in culture, several of which are currently used as antibiotics in the agricultural and health industries. Our current paper is a review of the most recent advances in antibiotic development during the period from 2009 to 2020. We focus especially on the nucleoside-type antibiotics, and discuss new synthetic biology techniques for improving the yield and diversity of new compounds. This literature review will be valuable to antibiotic researchers and to industries that develop and manufacture antibiotics.

Technical Abstract: Antibiotic resistance poses an increasing threat to global health, and it is urgent to reverse the present trend by accelerating development of new natural product derived drugs. Nucleoside antibiotics, a valuable family of promising natural products with remarkable structural features and diverse biological activities, have played significant roles for healthcare and for plant protection. Evaluating how nature builds this family of intricate molecules has provided a foundation for bioengineering the microbial cell factory towards yield enhancement and structural diversification. In this review, we summarize the recent progresses in employing synthetic biology-based strategies to improve target nucleoside antibiotics. Moreover, we also delineate the advances on rationally accessing to chemical diversities of natural nucleoside antibiotics.