GELIFES/GBB Seminar - Paco Barona Gomez

Paco Barona Gomez (Leiden University)

Evolution of bacterial specialized metabolism

A complex trait dissected through the lens of metabolic phylo(meta)genomics

Specialized (or secondary) metabolites, also referred to as natural products, are used extensively in medicine and agriculture and have found utility as antibiotics, immunosuppressives, anti-cancer drugs, and anthelminthics. Remarkably, the natural role and mechanisms driving the evolution of this complex trait are relatively poorly understood. The exponential increase in genome and chemical data in recent years, coupled with computational advances, have enabled the understanding of the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters and the products of their enzymatic machinery. The latter, in turn, has opened an unprecedented opportunity to decipher the biological and ecological roles of specialized metabolites beyond their anthropocentric biotechnological applications.

In this lecture I will discuss the diversity of bacterial specialized metabolites, incorporating the mechanisms that govern evolution of metabolic pathways. I will highlight selected recent examples investigated by us from fieldwork (soil and plant microbiome) to experimental characterization through the lens of metabologenomics analysis. By doing so, I intend to persuade the audience that an Ecological-Evolutionary framework is the way forward to dissect, better understand, and ultimately harness the nature and raison d’être of bacterial specialized metabolism as a complex trait.