Marine invertebrate-associated symbiotic bacteria produce a plethora of novel secondary metabolites which may be structurally unique with interesting pharmacological properties. Selection of strains usually relies on literature searching, genetic screening and bioactivity results, often without considering the chemical novelty and abundance of secondary metabolites being produced by the microor...

Metabolites from intestinal microbes modulate the mucosal immune system by regulating the polarization and expansion of T cells. Whether the microbial metabolites influence macrophage polarization, however, is poorly understood. Here, we show that the large bowel microbial fermentation product, butyrate, facilitates M2 macrophage polarization, in vitro and in vivo. The supernatant from butyrate...

Cryoconite holes are known as foci of microbial diversity and activity on polar glacier surfaces, but are virtually unexplored microbial habitats in alpine regions. In addition, whether cryoconite community structure reflects ecosystem functionality is poorly understood. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and Fourier transform infrared metabolite fingerprinting of cryoconite from...

Screening microbial secondary metabolites is an established method to identify novel biologically active molecules. Preparation of biological screening samples from microbial fermentation extracts requires growth conditions that promote synthesis of secondary metabolites and extraction procedures that capture the secondary metabolites produced. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) anal...

In microbiology, gene disruption and subsequent experiments often center on phenotypic changes caused by one class of specialized metabolites (quorum sensors, virulence factors, or natural products), disregarding global downstream metabolic effects. With the recent development of mass spectrometry-based methods and technologies for microbial metabolomics investigations, it is now possible to vi...

This document describes a study on the integration of microbial 16S rRNA gene data with targeted metabolomics data, in the context of bacterial vaginosis (BV), to investigate microbial traits and metabolic particularities involved with this disorder. Multiple computational methods were applied, ranging from simple statistical tests to different applications of decision trees and most importantl...

CONTENTS Introduction Whyand HowCompanies Screen Microbial Metabolites The Return on Investment Organizational Issues Technical Aspects of the Laboratory Operations Optimizing Secondary Metabolite Diversity 1. Diversity and Novelty of Microorganisms 2. Fermentation of Microorganisms 3. Preparation of Fermentation Samples for Screening Screening Strategies and Tactics 1. Characteristics of Suita...

Here we report that an engineered microbial cytochrome P450 BM-3 (CYP102A subfamily) efficiently catalyzes the alpha-hydroxylation of phenylacetic acid esters. This P450 BM-3 variant also produces the authentic human metabolite of buspirone, R-6-hydroxybuspirone, with 99.5% ee.

Microbial transformation of lapachol, a naturally occurring naphthoquinone, was carried out by Curvularia lunata (NRRL 2178). The fungus brings about oxidative cyclization of the substrate to dehydro-alpha-lapachone, which was isolated and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectral analyses; its structure was verified by chemical synthesis. The metabolite is a naturally occur...

A new microbial metabolite, designated fistupyrone, was isolated from the culture broth of a plant-associated Streptomyces sp. TP-A0569. Fistupyrone inhibited the in vivo infection of the seedlings of Chinese cabbage by Alternaria brassicicola TP-F0423, the cause of Alternaria leaf spot, without any in vitro fungicidal activity.