Genomics of NRPS/PKS Biosynthetic Gene Clusters in Cyanobacteria

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are well-known producers of a broad range of natural products of diverse chemical structures. Many of these compounds are the products of non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) or polyketide synthase (PKS) pathways. In the last 15 years, genome mining of biosynthetic gene clusters has become a key methodology for studying NRPS/PKS biosynthetic gene clusters in cyanobacteria. This particularly rich phylum revealed an unexpected diversity for these clusters with only 20% of them that could be linked to a known natural product. The present chapter reviews recent literature on genomics of NRPS/PKS biosynthetic gene clusters in cyanobacteria from strategies of genome mining to comparative genomics. We then tackle the gap from prediction to characterization of natural products before discussing the benefits of combined genomic and metagenomic investigations. Finally we propose future trends for the study of these natural products in cyanobacteria to overcome the current gap between genome mining and natural products discovery.