Sugars for pills : Linking carbon sources utilization to secondary metabolite production in Actinobacteria

Actinobacteria are ubiquitous organisms primarily found in soil. Most are saprophytic and actively participate in the degradation of organic matter. In their natural habitat, they perceive various environmental signals, some of which enable the production of specialized metabolites to improve their fitness to specific conditions. The production of these molecules is strictly controlled in time and space. Additionally, the large number of potential triggers makes it difficult to unveil the molecules that serve as a signal and the pathway by which they modulate the expression of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs). Our project combines in silico approaches to generate a new bioinformatic tool named COMMBAT for predicting the culture conditions for the transcriptional expression of BGCs, with a focus on carbon sources as a perceived signal. The predicted pathways will be validated, and novel routes from carbon sources to BGC expression will be unveiled. The poster illustrates some applications of the COMMBAT tool.