Marine microorganisms have attracted more and more attention in biological discovery due to their unique physical and chemical properties, which are obtained to adapt to the extreme conditions prevailing in the marine environment. A large number of studies have shown that different marine microorganisms seem to have the ability to produce a series of impressive marine microbial natural products, which have a variety of biological activities, such as antibacterial, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-cardiovascular agents. As promising bioactive compounds, marine microbial natural products play potential applications in various fields such as medicine, agriculture and industry.
Alfa Chemistry is a leading supplier specializing in marine microbial research. With our team of experienced scientists and state-of-the-art facilities, we have the ability to discover and develop new marine microbial natural products from marine microorganisms for different industries.
Our Discovery and Development Methods
Our discovery and development methods include but are not limited to the following.
The conventional methods of screening comprise two approaches: bioactivity-guided screening and gene-guided screening. Using culture supernatants or extracts of cell pellets, bioactivity-guided screening allows direct detection of antimicrobial, antitumor, antiviral, antiparasitic and other activities. Gene-guided screening has been used to search for target genes related to the biosynthetic pathway of natural products to determine the new source of bioactive secondary metabolites. When combined with homology-based searches and phylogenetic analyses, gene-based screening offers the highest potential to predict the production of novel secondary metabolites found in isolates or environments.
More than 99% of microorganisms are not easily cultured in the laboratory. Therefore, culture-independent methods are needed in order to discover most microorganisms. Metagenomics provides direct access to the genomes of entire environmental microorganisms by extracting total environmental DNA (eDNA). The introduction of eDNA into a suitable host and screening of these enormous eDNA libraries for bioactive clones is an effective technique to access natural products encoded by the genomes of previously uncultured microorganisms [1].
Genomics has been shown to be valuable in the discovery of marine microbial natural products. Advances in DNA sequencing and bioinformatics technologies have made it possible to quickly identify the gene cluster of bioactive compounds and predict their chemical structures based on genomic information. These structural predictions serve as a guide for compound purification, structure confirmation, and the identification of novel chemical entities.
Synthetic biology is a combination of biology and different branches of engineering whose aim is to redesign and create new artificial biological pathways or synthetic biomolecules. With the rapid development of synthetic biology, it has emerged as a promising strategy to improve the production of known compounds or to activate silent gene clusters. Based on the development of genome-wide genetic manipulation techniques such as hierarchical conjugative assembly genome engineering (CAGE) and multiplex automated genome engineering (MAGE), and the functional definition of rich genetic materials, synthetic biology allows the assembly of natural or artificial biosynthetic pathways in the host microbes for marine microbial natural products [2].
Our Advantages
- We provide one-stop technical services to solve your project challenges.
- We have an efficient project management system to ensure timely delivery of results.
- We follow strict quality control measures at every stage of the research process to ensure the accuracy, repeatability and reliability of the results.
- We offer flexible and targeted technical services to help our customers reduce their capital and time costs.
- We will strictly keep confidential the content entrusted by the customer, and can sign a confidentiality agreement.
References
- Ōmura S, et al. Genome sequence of an industrial microorganism Streptomyces avermitilis: deducing the ability of producing secondary metabolites. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2001, 98(21): 12215-12220.
- Xiong, Z. Q.; et al. Recent advances in the discovery and development of marine microbial natural products. Marine drugs. 2013, 11(3): 700-717.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
