Bioactive Metabolites from Actinomycetes and Endophytes
Summary
Actinomycetes and endophytic fungi and bacteria constitute prolific sources of bioactive secondary metabolites with potent antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer and plant-protective properties. Actinomycetes, particularly streptomycetes, have long yielded clinically important antibiotics, antitumour agents and enzyme inhibitors through their diverse biosynthetic gene clusters. Endophytes, residing asymptomatically within plant tissues, have emerged as complementary reservoirs of novel chemical scaffolds, often mirroring or augmenting their host’s defence chemistry. Advances in genome mining and metabolomic profiling have revealed extensive “silent” or cryptic pathways that can be activated under tailored culture conditions or by co-cultivation techniques. These discoveries underscore the global significance of microbial natural products for human health, agriculture and biotechnology, as well as the imperative to explore under-studied habitats—from alpine soils to marine ecosystems—to uncover chemical diversity and address antimicrobial resistance, sustainable crop protection and new drug leads.
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Bioactive Metabolites from Actinomycetes and Endophytes publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in bioactive metabolites from actinomycetes and endophytes across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Actinomycetes: Filamentous, Gram-positive bacteria renowned for producing diverse secondary metabolites via complex biosynthetic gene clusters.
Endophytes: Microorganisms that inhabit internal plant tissues without causing disease, often synthesising novel bioactive compounds.
Secondary metabolites: Non-essential small molecules produced by microbes or plants with ecological or pharmacological activities.
Nonribosomal peptide: Bioactive peptide assembled by nonribosomal peptide synthetases, often with antibiotic properties.
Silent biosynthetic gene cluster: Genomic region encoding secondary metabolites that remains unexpressed under standard laboratory conditions.
Biocontrol agent: Organism or compound used to suppress plant pathogens, offering an alternative to chemical pesticides.
References
- Nonribosomal antibacterial peptides isolated from Streptomyces agglomeratus 5-1-3 in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Microbial Cell Factories (2023).
- Antimicrobial Efficacy of 7-Hydroxyflavone Derived from Amycolatopsis sp. HSN-02 and Its Biocontrol Potential on Cercospora Leaf Spot Disease in Tomato Plants. Antibiotics (2023).
- Investigation of the impact of bacterial microencapsulation on natural product discovery. Current Research in Biotechnology (2023).
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