scholarly journals Chemistry and Biochemistry of Sulfur Natural Compounds: Key Intermediates of Metabolism and Redox Biology

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Francioso ◽  
Alessia Baseggio Conrado ◽  
Luciana Mosca ◽  
Mario Fontana
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Sulfur Metabolism ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Redox Biology ◽  
Inorganic Sulfur ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Sulfurous Compounds ◽  
Sulfur Containing

Sulfur contributes significantly to nature chemical diversity and thanks to its particular features allows fundamental biological reactions that no other element allows. Sulfur natural compounds are utilized by all living beings and depending on the function are distributed in the different kingdoms. It is no coincidence that marine organisms are one of the most important sources of sulfur natural products since most of the inorganic sulfur is metabolized in ocean environments where this element is abundant. Terrestrial organisms such as plants and microorganisms are also able to incorporate sulfur in organic molecules to produce primary metabolites (e.g., methionine, cysteine) and more complex unique chemical structures with diverse biological roles. Animals are not able to fix inorganic sulfur into biomolecules and are completely dependent on preformed organic sulfurous compounds to satisfy their sulfur needs. However, some higher species such as humans are able to build new sulfur-containing chemical entities starting especially from plants’ organosulfur precursors. Sulfur metabolism in humans is very complicated and plays a central role in redox biochemistry. The chemical properties, the large number of oxidation states, and the versatile reactivity of the oxygen family chalcogens make sulfur ideal for redox biological reactions and electron transfer processes. This review will explore sulfur metabolism related to redox biochemistry and will describe the various classes of sulfur-containing compounds spread all over the natural kingdoms. We will describe the chemistry and the biochemistry of well-known metabolites and also of the unknown and poorly studied sulfur natural products which are still in search for a biological role.

scholarly journals Analysis of a large food chemical database: chemical space, diversity, and complexity

F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 993 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jesús Naveja ◽  
Mariel P. Rico-Hidalgo ◽  
José L. Medina-Franco
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Chemical Database ◽  
Protein Interactome ◽  
Limited Basis ◽  
Future Direction

Background: Food chemicals are a cornerstone in the food industry. However, its chemical diversity has been explored on a limited basis, for instance, previous analysis of food-related databases were done up to 2,200 molecules. The goal of this work was to quantify the chemical diversity of chemical compounds stored in FooDB, a database with nearly 24,000 food chemicals. Methods: The visual representation of the chemical space of FooDB was done with ChemMaps, a novel approach based on the concept of chemical satellites. The large food chemical database was profiled based on physicochemical properties, molecular complexity and scaffold content. The global diversity of FooDB was characterized using Consensus Diversity Plots. Results: It was found that compounds in FooDB are very diverse in terms of properties and structure, with a large structural complexity. It was also found that one third of the food chemicals are acyclic molecules and ring-containing molecules are mostly monocyclic, with several scaffolds common to natural products in other databases. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the chemical diversity and complexity of FooDB. This study represents a step further to the emerging field of “Food Informatics”. Future study should compare directly the chemical structures of the molecules in FooDB with other compound databases, for instance, drug-like databases and natural products collections. An additional future direction of this work is to use the list of 3,228 polyphenolic compounds identified in this work to enhance the on-going polyphenol-protein interactome studies.

scholarly journals Natural Products, Traditional Uses and Pharmacological Activities of the Genus Biebersteinia (Biebersteiniaceae)

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benyin Zhang ◽  
Xiaona Jin ◽  
Hengxia Yin ◽  
Dejun Zhang ◽  
Huakun Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Pharmacological Properties ◽  
Pharmacological Activities ◽  
Drug Discovery And Development ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Traditional Uses ◽  
Novel Drugs ◽  
Major Chemical

Medicinal plants have been known as a rich source of natural products (NPs). Due to their diverse chemical structures and remarkable pharmacological activities, NPs are regarded as important repertoires for drug discovery and development. Biebersteinia plant species belong to the Biebersteiniaceae family, and have been used in folk medicines in China and Iran for ages. However, the chemical properties, bioactivities and modes of action of the NPs produced by medicinal Biebersteinia species are poorly understood despite the fact that there are only four known Biebersteinia species worldwide. Here, we reviewed the chemical classifications and diversity of the various NPs found in the four known Biebersteinia species. We found that the major chemical categories in these plants include flavonoids, alkaloids, phenylpropanoids, terpenoids, essential oils and fatty acids. We also discussed the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antibacterial, antioxidant, antihypertensive and hypoglycemic effects of the four Biebersteinia species. We believe that the present review will facilitate the exploration of traditional uses and pharmacological properties of Biebersteinia species, extraction of the NPs and elucidation of their molecular mechanisms, as well as the development of novel drugs based on the reported properties and mode-of-action.

scholarly journals Origins and Bioactivities of Natural Compounds Derived from Marine Ascidians and Their Symbionts

Marine Drugs ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoju Dou ◽  
Bo Dong
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Bioactive Compounds ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Marine Animals ◽  
Lead Compounds ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Novel Structures ◽  
Important Drug

Marine ascidians are becoming important drug sources that provide abundant secondary metabolites with novel structures and high bioactivities. As one of the most chemically prolific marine animals, more than 1200 inspirational natural products, such as alkaloids, peptides, and polyketides, with intricate and novel chemical structures have been identified from ascidians. Some of them have been successfully developed as lead compounds or highly efficient drugs. Although numerous compounds that exist in ascidians have been structurally and functionally identified, their origins are not clear. Interestingly, growing evidence has shown that these natural products not only come from ascidians, but they also originate from symbiotic microbes. This review classifies the identified natural products from ascidians and the associated symbionts. Then, we discuss the diversity of ascidian symbiotic microbe communities, which synthesize diverse natural products that are beneficial for the hosts. Identification of the complex interactions between the symbiont and the host is a useful approach to discovering ways that direct the biosynthesis of novel bioactive compounds with pharmaceutical potentials.

scholarly journals Sulfur and Sulfur Compounds in Plant Defence

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1934578X1200700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifeanyi D. Nwachukwu ◽  
Alan J. Slusarenko ◽  
Martin C. H. Gruhlke
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Plant Defence ◽  
Sulfur Compounds ◽  
Oxidation States ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sulfur Containing ◽  
Sulfur Containing Compounds

The multiplicity of chemical structures of sulfur containing compounds, influenced in part by the element's several oxidation states, directly results in diverse modes of action for sulfur-containing natural products synthesized as secondary metabolites in plants. Sulfur-containing natural products constitute a formidable wall of defence against a wide range of pathogens and pests. Steady progress in the development of new technologies have advanced research in this area, helping to uncover the role of such important plant defence molecules like endogenously-released elemental sulphur, but also deepening current understanding of other better-studied compounds like the glucosinolates. As studies continue in this area, it is becoming increasingly evident that sulfur and sulfur compounds play far more important roles in plant defence than perhaps previously suspected.

scholarly journals Insights into the Diversity of Secondary Metabolites of Planktothrix Using a Biphasic Approach Combining Global Genomics and Metabolomics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanrda Kim Tiam ◽  
Muriel Gugger ◽  
Justine Demay ◽  
Severine Le Manach ◽  
Charlotte Duval ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Metabolite Profiles ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
Major Bottleneck ◽  
Different Strains ◽  
Slow Growing

Cyanobacteria are an ancient lineage of slow-growing photosynthetic bacteria and a prolific source of natural products with diverse chemical structures and potent biological activities and toxicities. The chemical identification of these compounds remains a major bottleneck. Strategies that can prioritize the most prolific strains and novel compounds are of great interest. Here, we combine chemical analysis and genomics to investigate the chemodiversity of secondary metabolites based on their pattern of distribution within some cyanobacteria. Planktothrix being a cyanobacterial genus known to form blooms worldwide and to produce a broad spectrum of toxins and other bioactive compounds, we applied this combined approach on four closely related strains of Planktothrix. The chemical diversity of the metabolites produced by the four strains was evaluated using an untargeted metabolomics strategy with high-resolution LC-MS. Metabolite profiles were correlated with the potential of metabolite production identified by genomics for the different strains. Although, the Planktothrix strains present a global similarity in term biosynthetic cluster gene for microcystin, aeruginosin and prenylagaramide for example, we found remarkable strain-specific chemo-diversity. Only few of the chemical features were common to the four studied strains. Additionally, the MS/MS data were analyzed using Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) to identify molecular families of the same biosynthetic origin. In conclusion, we present an efficient integrative strategy for elucidating the chemical diversity of a given genus and link the data obtained from analytical chemistry to biosynthetic genes of cyanobacteria.

scholarly journals Diversity of Chemical Structures and Biosynthesis of Polyphenols in Nut-Bearing Species

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaiwat Aneklaphakij ◽  
Tomoki Saigo ◽  
Mutsumi Watanabe ◽  
Thomas Naake ◽  
Alisdair R. Fernie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Crop Improvement ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Biosynthetic Genes ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Chemistry Research ◽  
Technical Advances

Nuts, such as peanut, almond, and chestnut, are valuable food crops for humans being important sources of fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and polyphenols. Polyphenols, such as flavonoids, stilbenoids, and hydroxycinnamates, represent a group of plant-specialized (secondary) metabolites which are characterized as health-beneficial antioxidants within the human diet as well as physiological stress protectants within the plant. In food chemistry research, a multitude of polyphenols contained in culinary nuts have been studied leading to the identification of their chemical properties and bioactivities. Although functional elucidation of the biosynthetic genes of polyphenols in nut species is crucially important for crop improvement in the creation of higher-quality nuts and stress-tolerant cultivars, the chemical diversity of nut polyphenols and the key biosynthetic genes responsible for their production are still largely uncharacterized. However, current technical advances in whole-genome sequencing have facilitated that nut plant species became model plants for omics-based approaches. Here, we review the chemical diversity of seed polyphenols in majorly consumed nut species coupled to insights into their biological activities. Furthermore, we present an example of the annotation of key genes involved in polyphenolic biosynthesis in peanut using comparative genomics as a case study outlining how we are approaching omics-based approaches of the nut plant species.

scholarly journals Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Octocoral-Associated Microbes—New Chances for Blue Growth

Marine Drugs ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inês Raimundo ◽  
Sandra Silva ◽  
Rodrigo Costa ◽  
Tina Keller-Costa
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Genome Mining ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Novel Drugs ◽  
Blue Growth ◽  
Microbial Symbionts ◽  
Bacteria And Fungi ◽  
Near Future

Octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa Octocorallia) are magnificent repositories of natural products with fascinating and unusual chemical structures and bioactivities of interest to medicine and biotechnology. However, mechanistic understanding of the contribution of microbial symbionts to the chemical diversity of octocorals is yet to be achieved. This review inventories the natural products so-far described for octocoral-derived bacteria and fungi, uncovering a true chemical arsenal of terpenes, steroids, alkaloids, and polyketides with antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antifouling, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimalarial activities of enormous potential for blue growth. Genome mining of 15 bacterial associates (spanning 12 genera) cultivated from Eunicella spp. resulted in the identification of 440 putative and classifiable secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), encompassing varied terpene-, polyketide-, bacteriocin-, and nonribosomal peptide-synthase BGCs. This points towards a widespread yet uncharted capacity of octocoral-associated bacteria to synthetize a broad range of natural products. However, to extend our knowledge and foster the near-future laboratory production of bioactive compounds from (cultivatable and currently uncultivatable) octocoral symbionts, optimal blending between targeted metagenomics, DNA recombinant technologies, improved symbiont cultivation, functional genomics, and analytical chemistry are required. Such a multidisciplinary undertaking is key to achieving a sustainable response to the urgent industrial demand for novel drugs and enzyme varieties.

scholarly journals Insights into the Diversity of Secondary Metabolites of Planktothrix Using a Biphasic Approach Combining Global Genomics and Metabolomics

Toxins ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Kim Tiam ◽  
Muriel Gugger ◽  
Justine Demay ◽  
Séverine Le Manach ◽  
Charlotte Duval ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Metabolite Profiles ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
Major Bottleneck ◽  
Different Strains ◽  
Slow Growing

Cyanobacteria are an ancient lineage of slow-growing photosynthetic bacteria and a prolific source of natural products with diverse chemical structures and potent biological activities and toxicities. The chemical identification of these compounds remains a major bottleneck. Strategies that can prioritize the most prolific strains and novel compounds are of great interest. Here, we combine chemical analysis and genomics to investigate the chemodiversity of secondary metabolites based on their pattern of distribution within some cyanobacteria. Planktothrix being a cyanobacterial genus known to form blooms worldwide and to produce a broad spectrum of toxins and other bioactive compounds, we applied this combined approach on four closely related strains of Planktothrix. The chemical diversity of the metabolites produced by the four strains was evaluated using an untargeted metabolomics strategy with high-resolution LC–MS. Metabolite profiles were correlated with the potential of metabolite production identified by genomics for the different strains. Although, the Planktothrix strains present a global similarity in terms of a biosynthetic cluster gene for microcystin, aeruginosin, and prenylagaramide for example, we found remarkable strain-specific chemodiversity. Only few of the chemical features were common to the four studied strains. Additionally, the MS/MS data were analyzed using Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) to identify molecular families of the same biosynthetic origin. In conclusion, we depict an efficient, integrative strategy for elucidating the chemical diversity of a given genus and link the data obtained from analytical chemistry to biosynthetic genes of cyanobacteria.

scholarly journals Natural Compounds as Guides for the Discovery of Drugs Targeting G-Protein-Coupled Receptors

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (21) ◽  
pp. 5060
Author(s):  
Joan Serrano-Marín ◽  
Irene Reyes-Resina ◽  
Eva Martínez-Pinilla ◽  
Gemma Navarro ◽  
Rafael Franco
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Drug Discovery ◽  
G Protein ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
G Protein Coupled Receptors ◽  
Taste Receptors ◽  
Allosteric Modulators ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Therapeutic Drugs ◽  
G Protein Coupled

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which constitute the most populous family of the human proteome, are the target of 35–45% of approved therapeutic drugs. This review focuses on natural products (excluding peptides) that target GPCRs. Natural compounds identified so far as agonists, antagonists or allosteric modulators of GPCRs have been found in all groups of existing living beings according to Whittaker’s Five Kingdom Classification, i.e., bacteria (monera), fungi, protoctists, plants and animals. Terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids are the most common chemical structures that target GPCRs whose endogenous ligands range from lipids to epinephrine, from molecules that activate taste receptors to molecules that activate smell receptors. Virtually all of the compounds whose formula is displayed in this review are pharmacophores with potential for drug discovery; furthermore, they are expected to help expand the number of GPCRs that can be considered as therapeutic targets.

scholarly journals Analysis of a large food chemical database: chemical space, diversity, and complexity

F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 993 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jesús Naveja ◽  
Mariel P. Rico-Hidalgo ◽  
José L. Medina-Franco
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Chemical Database ◽  
Molecular Complexity ◽  
Limited Basis

Background: Food chemicals are a cornerstone in the food industry. However, its chemical diversity has been explored on a limited basis, for instance, previous analysis of food-related databases were done up to 2,200 molecules. The goal of this work was to quantify the chemical diversity of chemical compounds stored in FooDB, a database with nearly 24,000 food chemicals. Methods: The visual representation of the chemical space of FooDB was done with ChemMaps, a novel approach based on the concept of chemical satellites. The large food chemical database was profiled based on physicochemical properties, molecular complexity and scaffold content. The global diversity of FoodDB was characterized using Consensus Diversity Plots. Results: It was found that compounds in FooDB are very diverse in terms of properties and structure, with a large structural complexity. It was also found that one third of the food chemicals are acyclic molecules and ring-containing molecules are mostly monocyclic, with several scaffolds common to natural products in other databases. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the chemical diversity and complexity of FooDB. This study represents a step further to the emerging field of “Food Informatics”. Future study should compare directly the chemical structures of the molecules in FooDB with other compound databases, for instance, drug-like databases and natural products collections.

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