Bioactive natural product discovery from human oral streptococci

Microbial natural products (NPs), often known as specialized metabolites, are secreted small molecules which serve as the primary means of communication in mediating microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions. These metabolites are used by bacteria to access information about both intracellular physiological status and extracellular environment, and are critical in controlling microbiome composition and bacterial complex processes such as defense, biofilm formation, and virulence. Recent genomic and transcriptomic analysis suggested that human oral streptococci produce natural products which are correlated to human health and disease. Despite the importance of natural products in pathogenicity and drug discovery, a knowledge gap between predicted biosynthetic genes and the structure of encoded natural products often remains. Interrogating these metabolites allows a thorough study of chemical communication and signaling processes, and improves our understanding of the interplay between microbes and microbe-host at a molecular level. In this presentation, I will discuss our recent efforts in identifying and characterizing new bioactive natural products from Streptococci using the targeted genome mining and chemical biology approaches.