BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:04cb61b16da149b94575d38a1b24020b CATEGORIES:Colloquium CREATED:20181130T203523 SUMMARY:Professor Yousong Ding, University of Florida LOCATION:CCB Auditorium DESCRIPTION:
“Exploiting Microbial G enomes to Access New Enzymology and Valuable Chemicals”
Natural products-based drug discovery has achieved trem endous successes, but the high rate of rediscovery and limited chemical sup ply are two major challenges the field is facing. On the other hand, recent advances of DNA sequencing techniques illuminate extraordinarily ric h potential of microbial strains for drug discovery and development, of whi ch we have only tapped the surface. Over the past five years, my rese arch laboratory has focused on the exploitation of microbial genomes to acc ess new enzymology and to develop synthetic biology approaches to synthesiz e valuable substances. In this talk, I will share our recent studies in the discovery of new enzymology and the production of chemicals. Sp ecifically, we characterized the catalytic features of ATP-grasp ligases in modifying multiple core peptides within a single substrate in the biosynth esis of one ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified pepti de (RiPP) microviridin. Microviridins possess potent andselective inh ibitory activity toward serine proteases, some of which are proven targets of FDA-approved drugs. Our work shows the distributive and unstrictly directional modifications of the enzymes, which fundamentally advances the understanding of modular RiPP biosynthesis. In addition, we have dev eloped synthetic biology tools and approaches to produce natural products f rom microbial genomes. Our progresses are highlighted by the in vi vo and in vitro synthesis of thaxtomin analogs. Thaxtomins, dete rmining virulent factors of tens of plant pathogenic Streptomyces i> strains, have been approved as bioherbicide by EPA but not commercialize d mainly due to the low productivity of native producers. We achieved their high-yield synthesis in nonnative hosts and produced hundreds of new analogues through in vitro biocombinatorial synthesis. Overal l, our work suggests the promising potential of microbial genomes for basic and translational research.
~ Coffee/tea will be se rved prior to lecture~
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Natural products-based drug discovery has achieved tremendous successes, but the high rate of rediscov ery and limited chemical supply are two major challenges the field is facin g. On the other hand, recent advances of DNA sequencing techniques il luminate extraordinarily rich potential of microbial strains for drug disco very and development, of which we have only tapped the surface. Over the past five years, my research laboratory has focused on the exploitation of microbial genomes to access new enzymology and to develop synthetic bio logy approaches to synthesize valuable substances. In this talk, I wi ll share our recent studies in the discovery of new enzymology and the prod uction of chemicals. Specifically, we characterized the catalytic feat ures of ATP-grasp ligases in modifying multiple core peptides within a sing le substrate in the biosynthesis of one ribosomally synthesized and post-tr anslationally modified peptide (RiPP) microviridin. Microviridins pos sess potent andselective inhibitory activity toward serine proteases, some of which are proven targets of FDA-approved drugs. Our work shows the distributive and unstrictly directional modifications of the enzymes, whic h fundamentally advances the understanding of modular RiPP biosynthesis.&nb sp; In addition, we have developed synthetic biology tools and approaches t o produce natural products from microbial genomes. Our progresses are highlighted by the in vivo and in vitro synthesis of thaxtom in analogs. Thaxtomins, determining virulent factors of tens of plant patho genic Streptomyces strains, have been approved as bioherbicide by EPA but not commercialized mainly due to the low productivity of native producers. We achieved their high-yield synthesis in nonnative hosts and produced hundreds of new analogues through in vitro biocombinato rial synthesis. Overall, our work suggests the promising potential of microbial genomes for basic and translational research.
~< /b> Coffee/tea will be served prior to lecture~
X-EXTRAINFO:Hosted by Professor Enver C. Izgu DTSTAMP:20240328T090829 DTSTART:20190409T150000 DTEND:20190409T160000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR