Exploring and expanding natural product chemical diversity

微生物次生代谢物是遗传编码的生物活性分子，由专门的代谢途径组装而成，这些代谢途径受到高度调控，并根据环境线索进行调整。作为进化的产物，它们是独特的激发子分子，为生产有机体执行关键任务。此外，它们是丰富的分子来源，可能为生产有机体提供服务，以控制入侵物种并在获取营养方面获得优势。鉴于其固有的生物活性和生理作用，微生物天然产物数千年来一直是药物和虫害防治剂的丰富来源，最近又被用作药物和重要的农业制剂，这并不令人惊讶。在过去的资助期间，我们由NSERC资助的研究使我们能够探索微生物生产的天然产品的生产、生物化学、生态学和工程学。

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.