S17: Genome guided discovery of new natural products from marine actinomycetes

Natural products and their derivatives have long served as the bedrock of the modern pharmaceutical industry, providing inspiration, for example, for almost half of all new drugs introduced into the clinic. Despite this remarkable hit-rate, we now know that we have only begun to scratch the surface of Nature’s secondary metabolome. Recent large-scale genome sequencing efforts have revealed that the metabolic capabilities of the bacteria and fungi have been profoundly underestimated based on compounds isolated from standard cultivation procedures. The genomic blueprint for natural product biosynthesis provides clear opportunities in the discovery of new chemical entities as well as in the extension of Nature’s capabilities to engineer designer molecules. We are arguably on the cusp of a revolution in the natural products field. Recent examples from marine bacteria will highlight recent advances and current challenges in this rapidly evolving discipline.