Genome Sequencing and Mining Expand the Natural Product Repertoire of Lysobacter

Compounds produced by living organisms serve as an important source of inspiration for the development of pharmaceuticals. The growth in genome sequencing data has revealed that many bacteria, even those not traditionally studied for natural product biosynthesis may have the capacity to produce many natural products. Lysobacter is a genus of such bacteria, members of which have attracted attention as possible biocontrol agents and are known to produce antibiotic natural products. In this study, we produced draft genome sequences for Lysobacter firmicutimachus DSM 102073T and Lysobacter yananisis ATCC BAA-2621T. We additionally examined 113 publicly available Lysobacter genomes and found that the biosynthetic potential of individual species ranges broadly, with species having between 1 and nearly 20 biosynthetic gene clusters. Filtering for genomes with complete assemblies and 9 or more biosynthetic gene clusters, we performed genome mining on 24 Lysobacter genomes. Within these genomes we identified 21 unique nonribosomal peptide, 11 unique hybrid polyketide/nonribosomal peptide, 4 unique polyketide, and 27 unique lanthipeptide biosynthetic gene clusters that produce uncharacterized compounds. Additionally, we tentatively identified the biosynthetic gene cluster in L. firmicutimachus DSM 102073T responsible for producing plusbacins, which has not been previously identified.