Biochemical and genetic basis of natural product biosynthesis in social amoebae

社会性变形虫是一种介于单细胞和多细胞之间的单系真核生物。孤立细胞生活在土壤中，以细菌为食，但它们可以通过聚集成多细胞生物来应对不利的环境条件，最终形成含有休眠孢子的子实体。Dictyostelium disideum的基因组编码了大量的聚酮合成酶（PKS）基因，这意味着在某些环境刺激下或在单细胞或多细胞生命周期的特定阶段，细胞可能产生大量的聚酮天然产物。本项目旨在阐明盘状棘球蚴在不同生长条件下和多细胞发育过程中次生代谢产物的谱。我们将把聚酮类天然产物的生化分离和鉴定与盘状天牛PKS基因缺陷突变体的分析联系起来，以深入了解分离化合物的生物合成途径及其潜在的生物活性和与化学生态学的相关性。

Social amoebae are a monophyletic group of eukaryotic organisms that hover on the borderline between uni- and multicellularity. Solitary cells live in soil and feed on bacteria, but they can respond to unfavorable environmental conditions by aggregating into multicellular organisms that eventually form fruiting bodies containing dormant spores. The genome of Dictyostelium discoideum encodes an unexpectedly large number of polyketide synthase (PKS) genes, thus implying a substantial repertoire of polyketide natural products that may be produced by the cells under certain environmental stimuli or at particular phases of their unicellular or multicellular life cycle. The aim of this project is to elucidate the spectrum of secondary metabolites of D. discoideum under various growth conditions and during the multicellular development of the organism. We will link the biochemical isolation and identification of polyketide natural products with the analysis of D. discoideum mutants defective in selected PKS genes to gain insight into the biosynthetic pathways of the isolated compounds and their potential biological activities and relevance for chemical ecology.