Genomics-Guided Natural Products Discovery: Volume 717

The genomics revolution has catalyzed a resurgence of interest in natural products research. Historically, such molecules have been the most prolific source of chemical matter for drug discovery. However, high rates of rediscovery eventually led to waning interest from academic and industrial groups. In the early 2000's, computational tools began to emerge that allowed researchers to scan genomic information in search of new molecules that have evaded prior isolation efforts. Concomitant with an explosion of new sequencing data to analyze, "genome-mining" tools grew in sophistication, with ever-increasing throughput and accuracy. A wide variety of such tools have since been developed by numerous groups worldwide. This volume attempts to capture the utility of these tools and serve as a how-to guide and lower the entry barrier for newcomers to familiarize themselves with genome-mining methodology. As the reader will see, creative strategies have been devised to algorithmic tailor the tool with the specific type of natural product biosynthetic pathway undergoing analysis.