Exploring and expanding natural product chemical diversity

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Microbial secondary metabolites are genetically encoded bioactive molecules assembled by dedicated metabolic pathways that are highly regulated and tuned to environmental cues. As products of evolution, they are unique elicitor molecules that perform critical tasks for the producing organisms. Furthermore, they are rich sources of molecules that likely serve producing organisms in control of encroaching species and to gain advantage in accessing nutrients. Given their intrinsic bioactivity and physiological effects, it is not surprising that microbial natural products have served as a rich source of medicines and pest control agents for millennia and more recently as drugs and agriculturally important agents. Over the past grant period, our NSERC-funded research has enabled us to explore the production, biochemistry, ecology and engineering of microbially produced natural products.