Chemical Biology of Marine Cyanobacteria

This chapter considers efforts to heterologously express individual proteins involved in natural product (NP) biosynthesis, and considers the few cases in which entire NP pathways have been cloned and heterologously expressed from marine Cyanobacteria. Marine Cyanobacteria have especially captured the interest and fascination of many marine chemical biologists in that they produce a dizzying array of NPs with many unique functional groups and atom arrangements. A number of problems have emerged in efforts aimed at the cloning and heterologous expression of marine cyanobacterial NP pathways, some of which are common to most polyketide synthase (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) pathways, such as their relatively large size and their requirement for cofactors including phosphopantetheinyl (PPant). A primary need for heterologous expression of marine cyanobacterial NP pathways is to meet supply needs. The long-standing and well-described supply problem of NPs has impeded the development of numerous promising lead molecules.