Mass Spectrometry-Guided Genome Mining as a Tool to Uncover Novel Natural Products

Summary

A mass spectrometry-guided genome mining protocol is established and described here. It is based on genome sequence information and LC-MS/MS analysis and aims to facilitate identification of molecules from complex microbial and plant extracts.

Abstract

The chemical space covered by natural products is immense and widely unrecognized. Therefore, convenient methodologies to perform wide-ranging evaluation of their functions in nature and potential human benefits (e.g., for drug discovery applications) are desired. This protocol describes the combination of genome mining (GM) and molecular networking (MN), two contemporary approaches that match gene cluster-encoded annotations in whole genome sequencing with chemical structure signatures from crude metabolic extracts. This is the first step towards the discovery of new natural entities. These concepts, when applied together, are defined here as MS-guided genome mining. In this method, the main components are previously designated (using MN), and structurally related new candidates are associated with genome sequence annotations (using GM). Combining GM and MN is a profitable strategy to target new molecule backbones or harvest metabolic profiles in order to identify analogues from already known compounds.

Introduction

Investigations of secondary metabolism often consist of screening crude extracts for specific biological activities followed by purification, identification, and characterization of the constituents belonging to active fractions. This process has proved to be efficient, promoting the isolation of several chemical entities. However, nowadays this is seen as unfeasible, mainly due to the high rates of rediscovery. As the pharmaceutical industry revolutionized without knowledge of the roles and functions of specialized metabolites, their identification was carried out under laboratory conditions that did not accurately represent nature¹. Today, th....

Protocol

1. Genome mining for biosynthetic gene clusters

1. Perform whole genome sequencing (WGS) as the first step to electing a biosynthetic gene cluster (BCG) for MS-guided genome mining. The whole genome draft of the strain of interest (bacteria) can be obtained by Illumina MiSeq technology using the following with high quality genomic DNA: shotgun TruSeq PCR-Free library prep and Nextera Mate Pair Library Preparation Kit³³.
   NOTE: After sequencing, the Illumina shotgun library and Illum.......

Discussion

The strongest advantage of this protocol is its ability to rapidly dereplicate metabolic profiles and bridge genomic information with MS data in order to elucidate the structures of new molecules, especially structural analogues². Based on genomic information, different natural products chemotypes can be investigated, such as polyketides (PK), nonribosomal peptides (NRP), and glycosylated natural products (GNP), as well as cryptic BGCs. Metabolomic screening yields evidence of activated BGC profil.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Acetonitrile	Tedia	AA1120-048	HPLC grade
Agar	Oxoid	LP0011	NA
Apramycin	Sigma Aldrich	A2024	NA
Carbenicillin	Sigma Aldrich	C9231	NA
Centrifuge	Eppendorf	NA	5804
Chloramphenicol	Sigma Aldrich	C3175	NA
Column C18	Agilent Technologies	NA	ZORBAX RRHD Extend-C18, 80Å, 2.1 x 50 mm, 1.8 µm, 1200 bar pressure limit P/N 757700-902
Kanamycin	Sigma Aldrich	K1377	NA
Manitol P.A.- A.C.S.	Synth	NA	NA
Microcentrifuge	Eppendorf	NA	5418
Nalidixic acid	Sigma Aldrich	N4382	NA
Phusion Flash High-Fidelity PCR Master Mix	ThermoFisher Scientific	F548S	NA
Q-TOF mass spectrometer	Agilent technologies	NA	6550 iFunnel Q-TOF LC/MS
Sacarose P.A.- A.C.S.	Synth	NA	NA
Shaker/Incubator	Marconi	MA420	NA
Sodium Chloride	Synth	NA	P. A. - ACS
Soy extract	NA	NA	NA
Sucrose	Synth	NA	P. A. - ACS
Thermal Cycles	Eppendorf	NA	Mastercycler Nexus Gradient
Thiostrepton	Sigma Aldrich	T8902	NA
Tryptone	Oxoid	LP0042	NA
Tryptone Soy Broth	Oxoid	CM0129	NA
UPLC	Agilent Technologies	NA	1290 Infinity LC System
Yeast extract	Oxoid	LP0021	NA