Microbial Production of Polyketides and Non-ribosomal Peptides and Their Applications

There is an increasing demand of novel bioactive molecules as the drug resistance is emerging worldwide. Microorganisms are adapted to already existing antimicrobials used for various microbial infections. Researchers have to focus more for the identification and development of secondary metabolites from the environment. Bioactive secondary metabolites synthesized by microorganisms are widely explored for the development of drugs. The two main groups of secondary metabolites are polyketides and non-ribosomal peptides synthesized by key enzymes such as polyketide synthases and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases respectively. These metabolites exhibit wide range of applications, which includes clinically relevant metabolites for the treatment of microbial infections and cancer. The major hurdle in the identification of bioactive molecules from the environmental samples is the deficit in microbial cultivation. Nevertheless, the advancement in metagenomic studies and genome mining makes feasible to predict biosynthetic gene clusters of bioactive molecules from the environment. Biosynthesis, evolution, production or bioengineering of the bioactive molecules are discussed.