Genomic and metabolic analyses reveal antagonistic lanthipeptides in archaea
Haoyu Liang,
Zhi-Man Song,
Zheng Zhong,
Dengwei Zhang,
Wei Yang,
Le Zhou,
Ethan A. Older,
Jie Li,
Huan Wang,
Zhirui Zeng,
Yong-Xin Li
Affiliations
Haoyu Liang
Department of Chemistry and The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong
Zhi-Man Song
Department of Chemistry and The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong
Zheng Zhong
Department of Chemistry and The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong
Dengwei Zhang
Department of Chemistry and The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong
Wei Yang
Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology
Le Zhou
Department of Chemistry and The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong
Ethan A. Older
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina
Jie Li
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina
Huan Wang
State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Chemistry and Biomedicine Innovation Center of Nanjing University, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University
Zhirui Zeng
Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology
Yong-Xin Li
Department of Chemistry and The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong
Abstract Background Microbes produce diverse secondary metabolites (SMs) such as signaling molecules and antimicrobials that mediate microbe-microbe interaction. Archaea, the third domain of life, are a large and diverse group of microbes that not only exist in extreme environments but are abundantly distributed throughout nature. However, our understanding of archaeal SMs lags far behind our knowledge of those in bacteria and eukarya. Results Guided by genomic and metabolic analysis of archaeal SMs, we discovered two new lanthipeptides with distinct ring topologies from a halophilic archaeon of class Haloarchaea. Of these two lanthipeptides, archalan α exhibited anti-archaeal activities against halophilic archaea, potentially mediating the archaeal antagonistic interactions in the halophilic niche. To our best knowledge, archalan α represents the first lantibiotic and the first anti-archaeal SM from the archaea domain. Conclusions Our study investigates the biosynthetic potential of lanthipeptides in archaea, linking lanthipeptides to antagonistic interaction via genomic and metabolic analyses and bioassay. The discovery of these archaeal lanthipeptides is expected to stimulate the experimental study of poorly characterized archaeal chemical biology and highlight the potential of archaea as a new source of bioactive SMs. Video Abstract
