The growing threat of antibiotic resistance necessitates the discovery of antibiotics that are active against resistant pathogens. Calcium-dependent antibiotics are a small family of structurally diverse acidic lipopeptides assembled by non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) that are known to display various modes of action against antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Here we use NRPS adenylation (AD) domain sequencing to guide the identification, recovery and cloning of the cde biosynthetic gene cluster from a soil metagenome. Heterologous expression of the cde biosynthetic gene cluster led to the production of cadasides A (1) and B (2), a sub-family of acidic lipopeptides that is distinct from previously characterized calcium-dependent antibiotics in terms of both overall structure and acidic residue rich peptide core. The cadasides inhibit the growth of multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens by disrupting cell wall biosynthesis in the presence of high concentrations of calcium. Interestingly, sequencing of AD domains from diverse soils found that sequences predicted to arise from cadaside-like gene clusters are predominantly found in soils containing high levels of calcium carbonate.

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Analysis of the full genome of an environmentally unique, halotolerant Streptomyces sp. strain GSL-6C, isolated from the Great Salt Lake, revealed a gene cluster encoding the biosynthesis of the salinipeptins, d-amino-acid-containing members of the rare linaridin subfamily of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). The sequence organization of the unmodified amino acid residues in salinipeptins A–D (1–4) were suggested by genome annotation, and subsequently, their sequence and post-translational modifications were defined using a range of spectroscopic techniques and chemical derivatization approaches. The salinipeptins are unprecedented linaridins bearing nine d-amino acids, which are uncommon in RiPP natural products and are the first reported in the linaridin subfamily. Whole genome mining of GSL-6C did not reveal any homologues of the reported genes responsible for amino acid epimerization in RiPPs, inferring new epimerases may be involved in the conversion of l- to d-amino acids. In addition, the N-oxide and dimethylimidazolidin-4-one moieties in salinipeptins B and C, which are modified from N,N-dimethylalanine, are unknown in bacterial peptides. The three-dimensional structure of salinipeptin A, possessing four loops generated by significant hydrogen bonding, was established on the basis of observed nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) correlations. This study demonstrates that integration of genomic information early in chemical analysis significantly facilitates the discovery and structure characterization of novel microbial secondary metabolites.

Sequencing of DNA extracted from environmental samples can provide key insights into the biosynthetic potential of uncultured bacteria. However, the high complexity of soil metagenomes, which can contain thousands of bacterial species per gram of soil, imposes significant challenges to explore secondary metabolites potentially produced by rare members of the soil microbiome. Here, we develop a targeted sequencing workflow termed CONKAT-seq (co-occurrence network analysis of targeted sequences) that detects physically clustered biosynthetic domains, a hallmark of bacterial secondary metabolism. Following targeted amplification of conserved biosynthetic domains in a highly partitioned metagenomic library, CONKAT-seq evaluates amplicon co-occurrence patterns across library subpools to identify chromosomally clustered domains. We show that a single soil sample can contain more than a thousand uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters, most of which originate from low frequency genomes which are practically inaccessible through untargeted sequencing. CONKAT-seq allows scalable exploration of largely untapped biosynthetic diversity across multiple soils, and can guide the discovery of novel secondary metabolites from rare members of the soil microbiome.

Penicillium sp. MA-37, which was obtained from the rhizospheric soil of the mangrove plant Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, exhibited different chemical profiles in static and shaken fermentation modes. Three new meroterpenoid derivatives, 4,25-dehydrominiolutelide B (1), 4,25-dehydro-22-deoxyminiolutelide B (2), and isominiolutelide A (3), together with three known ones were characterized from its static fermentation, while three new diphenyl ether derivatives, namely, Δ(1('),3('))-1'-dehydroxypenicillide (4), 7-O-acetylsecopenicillide C (5), and hydroxytenellic acid B (6), along with five related metabolites were isolated from the shaken culture. The structures of these compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis, and the structure of compound 2 was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The absolute configurations of 1-3 and 6 were determined by ECD and modified Mosher's method, respectively. All isolated compounds were evaluated for brine shrimp lethality and antibacterial activity.