Identification and Characterization of Natural Product Biosynthetic Pathways Encoded in the Microbiome of the Sponge Mycale hentscheli

Abstract

This work centers around the biosynthetic potential encoded in the microbiome of the chemically rich sponge Mycale hentscheli. We pursued diverse strategies to (i) identify biosynthetic genes, (ii) link them to complete biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and predict the structure of encoded products, (iii) assign the BGCs to producing organisms, and (iv) provide functional data by expressing individual enzymes in heterologous hosts.