Omics-guided search for new metabolites from fungi and bacteria

• Grant number: 24/19232-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Mobility Program: SPRINT - Projetos de pesquisa - Mobilidade
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Sartorelli
• Grantee: Patricia Sartorelli
• Principal researcher abroad: Nadine Ziemert
• Institution abroad: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Aileen Berasategui ; Renata Castiglioni Pascon
• Associated research grant: 22/09202-4 - Metabolomic and genomic study of fungi aiming at obtaining bioactive substances, AP.R

Abstract

Fungi and bacteria are widely distributed in nature and are capable of surviving in diverse environments, in addition to representing an important source of natural products. Many of these metabolites have diverse biological activities, and several of them have become medicines used in therapy. Additionally, the rise of omics sciences is the result of the advancement of analytical techniques, and of bioinformatics tools that assist in the analysis of data generated by these techniques. Thus, in addition to metabolomics, genomic techniques, especially genome mining, have proven to be an important tool in the prospecting of natural products, especially with regard to evaluating the biosynthetic potential of a microorganism. In this sense, techniques for prospecting biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), with the help of bioinformatics, allow us to know the genes responsible for the production of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of metabolites, use retrobiosynthetic approaches and know the complete biosynthetic potential of a given microorganism. Therefore, this proposal aims to evaluate the metabolomic and genomic profile of endophytic microorganisms (fungi and bacteria), predominantly from the Atlantic Forest region. The metabolomic approach will be carried out through the diversification of cultivation techniques to activate different biosynthetic pathways and dereplication of fungal extracts. On the other hand, the genomic approach will be carried out through genome mining techniques, using sequenced genomes of selected microorganisms, to prospect for BGCs, in addition to phylogenetic correlations between previously characterized clusters, and comparative genomics. The biosynthetic clusters selected by genome mining will be expressed heterologously in model organisms and, subsequently, transformed into Aspergillus oryzae to produce the secondary metabolites prospected. (AU)