From big data to small molecules: new resources and methods

In the discovery of secondary metabolites (SMs), large-scale computational analysis of genomic and metagenomic sequences is a promising exploration path. In this presentation, efforts at the Joint Genome Institute to develop computational methods, resources and tools to enable the discovery and analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters (BCs) will be discussed. First, IMG-ABC (Integrated Microbial Genomes’ Atlas of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters) -- a rich repository of both validated and predicted BCs in cultured isolates, single-cells and metagenomes linked with the SMs they produce and enhanced with focused analysis tools within IMG -- will be introduced. Following this, research on class agnostic genomic markers that may facilitate the discovery of BCs will be presented, followed by techniques used for evaluating and prioritizing candidate BCs for novel enzymatic activities and/or potential for production of previously uncharacterized SMs.  Finally, our work on the development and utilization of BC clustering methods coupled with analysis of metadata and sample composition data to explore and compare the biosynthetic potential in diverse environments will be discussed.