The worldwide prevalence of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria poses a serious threat to public health due to the limited therapeutic alternatives. Cationic peptides represent a large family of antibiotics and have attracted interest due to their diverse chemical structures and potential for combating drug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. Here, we analyze 7395 bacterial genomes to investigate their capacity for biosynthesis of cationic nonribosomal peptides with activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Applying this approach, we identify two novel compounds (brevicidine and laterocidine) showing bactericidal activities against antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative pathogens, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and colistin-resistant Escherichia coli, and an apparently low risk of resistance. The two peptides show efficacy against E. coli in a mouse thigh infection model. These findings may contribute to the discovery and development of Gram-negative antibiotics.

With an ever-increasing amount of (meta)genomic data being deposited in sequence databases, (meta)genome mining for natural product biosynthetic pathways occupies a critical role in the discovery of novel pharmaceutical drugs, crop protection agents and biomaterials. The genes that encode these pathways are often organised into biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). In 2015, we defined the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG): a standardised data format that describes the minimally required information to uniquely characterise a BGC. We simultaneously constructed an accompanying online database of BGCs, which has since been widely used by the community as a reference dataset for BGCs and was expanded to 2021 entries in 2019 (MIBiG 2.0). Here, we describe MIBiG 3.0, a database update comprising large-scale validation and re-annotation of existing entries and 661 new entries. Particular attention was paid to the annotation of compound structures and biological activities, as well as protein domain selectivities. Together, these new features keep the database up-to-date, and will provide new opportunities for the scientific community to use its freely available data, e.g. for the training of new machine learning models to predict sequence-structure-function relationships for diverse natural products. MIBiG 3.0 is accessible online at https://mibig.secondarymetabolites.org/.

Biofouling results in tremendous economic losses to maritime industries around the world. A recent global ban on the use of organotin compounds as antifouling agents has further raised demand for safe and effective antifouling compounds. In this study, 49 secondary metabolites, including diterpenoids, steroids, and polyketides, were isolated from soft corals, gorgonians, brown algae, and fungi collected along the coast of China, and their antifouling activity was tested against cyprids of the barnacle Balanus (Amphibalanus) amphitrite. Twenty of the compounds were found to inhibit larval settlement significantly at a concentration of 25 μg ml(-1). Two briarane diterpenoids, juncin O (2) and juncenolide H (3), were the most promising non-toxic antilarval settlement candidates, with EC50 values less than 0.13 μg ml(-1) and a safety ratio (LC50/EC50) higher than 400. A preliminary structure-activity relationships study indicated that both furanon and furan moieties are important for antifouling activity. Intriguingly, the presence of hydroxyls enhanced their antisettlement activity.