Exploring elicitor screening for prospecting natural products from cyanobacteria

Abstract

The production of secondary metabolites - or "natural products" - is energetically costly for microorganisms, so that the biosynthesis of many of these metabolites is inactive under standard laboratory culture conditions. Due to the importance of microbial natural products in prospecting new molecules with therapeutic potential, it is relevant to induce the biosynthesis of these metabolites by adding chemical elicitors to culture media. There is a lack of studies evaluating the influence of chemical elicitors in cyanobacterial cultures, which are a promising, yet unexplored, source of novel metabolites. We propose to evaluate the influence of chemical elicitors in the production of cyanobacterial metabolites in culture. Specific aims include: a) literature review to select elicitors, b) small scale cultivation of cyanobacterial strains with the elicitors, in replicates, along with the respective controls, c) production of extracts and mass spectrometry-based metabolomic analysis to identify and dereplicate metabolites produced under specific culture conditions.