Combining culture optimization and synthetic biology to improve production and detection of secondary metabolites in

Microbial secondary metabolites play crucial ecological roles in governing species interactions and contributing to their defense strategies. Their unique structures and potent bioactivities have been key in discovering antibiotics and anticancer drugs. Genome sequencing has undoubtedly revealed that myxobacteria constitute a huge reservoir of secondary metabolites as the well-known producers, actinomycetes. However, because most secondary metabolites are not produced in the laboratory context, the natural products from myxobacteria characterized to date represent only the tip of the iceberg. By combining the engineering of a dedicated