Standardization for natural product synthetic biology

Abstract

Standardization is one of the foundational features of modern-day engineering, and the use of standardized parts is a key element that distinguishes bona fide synthetic biology from traditional genetic engineering. Here, we discuss the role of standardization in natural product synthetic biology, focusing on standardization of data on biosynthetic pathways and gene clusters, as well as the role of standardization in the process of biosynthetic gene cluster engineering.

Biosynthetic Gene Content of the ‘Perfume Lichens’ Evernia prunastri and Pseudevernia furfuracea

“…Recent advances in genome sequencing and bioinformatic mining algorithms have enabled the identification and characterization of biosynthetic gene clusters from genome sequences and led to the discovery of thousands of biosynthetic gene clusters [33,34,35,36]. However, the identity, structure and function of the metabolites encoded by these gene clusters remain mostly unknown.…”

Introductory Chapter: Current Perspective of COVID-19 Drugs

“…Computation of natural products chemistry is a way to leverage the indigenous knowledge with modern science such as bioinformatics and biomedicine [48,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. It has achieve certain success in medical application, such as the chemotherapy agent of Taxol [64,65].…”

Computational Studies and Biosynthesis of Natural Products with Promising Anticancer Properties

“…Advances in bioinformatics and synthetic biology have permitted the cheap and efficient overproduction of secondary metabolites of medicinal interest in heterologous (non-native) host organisms by reengineering of BGCs [35]. This is carried out through reengineering of BGCs as well as the activation of silent BGCs to yield unreported natural products of the target chemical space [17,36], for example, an engineered Escherichia coli strain was used as the heterologous host organism for the production of taxadiene (a vital precursor of paclitaxel, an anticancer agent isolated from the bark of Taxus brevifolia), a precursor of the anticancer agent taxol [37].…”