Revisiting biodiscovery from microbial sources in the light of molecular advances

Abstract

Since the discovery of penicillin microorganisms have been an unexhausted source of novel bioactive compounds that served as scaffolds for potential drug candidates as well for the development of new antibiotics via fermentative processes. However, after 30 glorious years of biodiscovery begun in the 1940s, discovery of new antibiotic or therapeutic compounds with medicinal value entered a decline phase from the late 1970s onwards. At the same time, significant increases in the numbers of antibiotic or multi-drug resistant bacteria resulting in serious infections were reported. Although natural product discovery research was encouraged to continue due to the need to treat these infections only a few discoveries of potent antibiotics were made in the years of decline such as the discovery of Nikkomycin and Spinosyn. However, at the dawn of the 21st century advances in molecular biology such as genome mining and metabolic engineering changed the scene providing new avenues to the field of drug discovery. This article will highlight some of these advances.