Chemical ecology articles within Nature Chemistry

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• Article
  25 April 2022 | Open Access

  Global analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters reveals conserved and unique natural products in entomopathogenic nematode-symbiotic bacteria

  Entomopathogenic nematodes carrying Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus bacteria prey on insect larvae in the soil. Now, a comprehensive analysis of the bacterial genome has revealed ubiquitous and unique families of biosynthetic gene clusters. Evaluation of the bioactivity of the natural products expressed by the most prevalent cluster families explains the functional basis of bacterial natural products involved in bacteria–nematode–insect interactions.

  • Yi-Ming Shi
  • , Merle Hirschmann
  •  & Helge B. Bode

• Article | 06 April 2015

  The colibactin warhead crosslinks DNA

  Genotoxic small molecules from the bacterial colibactin pathway — a gut-associated non-ribosomal peptide synthetase–polyketide synthase hybrid gene cluster linked to colorectal cancer — have remained elusive due to their instability. Now, one of these, the colibactin warhead, an unprecedented substituted spirobicyclic structure, has been characterized and shown to crosslink duplex DNA in vitro.

  • Maria I. Vizcaino
  •  & Jason M. Crawford