Basic Info

The antiSMASH database was used to predict gene clusters of secondary metabolites in fungal/bacterial genomes

More Details

Secondary metabolites are small molecules produced by microorganisms during the stationary phase of growth, utilizing primary metabolites as precursors. Although not directly involved in essential life processes like growth or reproduction, these compounds are often secreted outside the cell and mediate ecological interactions such as antimicrobial defense or resource competition.

What's New

AntiSMASH (antibiotics & Secondary Metabolite Analysis SHell) allows the rapid genome-wide identification, annotation and analysis of secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters in bacterial and fungal genomes. It integrates and cross-links with a large number of in silico secondary metabolite analysis tools that have been published earlier. The antiSMASH framework detects clusters of co-occurring biosynthesis genes in genomes, called Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs). BGCs often contain all the genes required for the biosynthesis of one or more Natural Products (NPs), also known as specialized or secondary metabolites. NPs show interesting biological activities and many of them have been developed into essential medicines, including antibiotics (penicillin, streptomycin), anti-cancer drugs (bleomycin, doxorubicin), or cholesterol-lowering agents (lovastatin). This makes NPs and their encoding BGCs highly relevant from both a commercial and scientific perspective. 

 

Additional Information

Related links:

https://antismash.secondarymetabolites.org/#!/start

Literature

Blin K, Shaw S, Augustijn HE, et al. antiSMASH 7.0: new and improved predictions for detection, regulation, chemical structures and visualisation. Nucleic Acids Res. 2023;51(W1):W46-W50. doi:10.1093/nar/gkad344