BIOPROSP_23

Understanding the potential of marine microbial communities for novel product discovery
The field of metagenomics has expanded rapidly over the past decade, both in terms of the number and diversity of different datasets, and the volume of biological insight that can be gleaned from the sequence data. One area of significant growth has been the assembly of datasets, and the subsequent elucidation of genomes, so called metagenome assembled genomes.

• Dr. Rob finn will present the methods they have developed to start to understand all parts of the microbial kingdom, from virus to prokaryotes to eukaryotes. This has provided unprecedented insights in to the coding potential of microbiomes from a range of environments, including the marine environment.
• Datasets from marine environments are particularly enriched with alpha-beta hydrolases, key enzymes for biotechnological processes. Beyond single enzymes, the large contiguous units allow deeper insights into the metabolic functions encoded, and which microbes are producing them. For example, biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encode the genes necessary for natural products such as antimicrobials and signalling molecules, which can play major roles in various ecological processes. Many of these natural products have also been exploited for industrial biotechnology or pharmaceutical applications. Thus, he will summarize their efforts on the accurate identification of BGCs in (meta)genomic data.

• Quick overview on current modeling approaches
• In silico enzyme discovery: BIOMATCHMAKER®
• How can novel methods support marine bioprospecting?

• Most of the cultivated and uncultivated bacterial life is chemically unexplored
• Genome- and ecology-guided natural product discovery
• Widespread, new natural product families with pharmacological potential

Marine phytoplankton sense their enemies by chemical alarm signals emitted by their zooplankton enemies. The cueing compounds from the most abundant zooplankton in the sea, copepods, was identified as a group of polar lipids called copepodamides.

• Copepodamides induce defensive traits in a wide variety of organisms including toxin production in harmful algae causing amnesic and paralytic shellfish poisoning.
• Other prey organisms respond by reduced colony-size or increased bioluminescent capacity.
• Copepods are present in all aquatic habitats, both freshwater and marine. The copeopdamide signaling system may consequently be one of the most widespread on earth.
• Purified copepodamides can be used to manipulate plankton organisms and elicit defensive traits also in the absence of predators. Specific examples involve deciphering the molecular machinery behind defensive traits such as toxin production and assessing the costs and benefits of defensive traits.
• Copepodamides can also be measured in situ to improve lead time and precision in harmful algal bloom forecasts.

• Biogeography and evolution of archaeal hydrothermal vent lineages
• Novel metabolic properties of microbial isolates and co-cultures
• Diversity and biochemical properties of new enzymes