Exploring the biosynthetic landscapes of marine sponge microbiomes

Summary

Marine sponges and their microbial symbiotic communities are rich sources of diverse natural products (NPs) that often display biological activity, yet little is known about the global distribution of NPs and the symbionts that produce them. As the majority of sponge symbionts remain uncultured, it is a challenge to characterize their NP biosynthetic pathways, assess their prevalence within the holobiont and measure the diversity of NP biosynthetic gene clusters (BGC) across sponge taxa and environments. Here we explore the biosynthetic landscapes of marine sponge microbiomes using a plethora of computational methods, and contribute to the mapping of the novelty contained in these genomic resouces.