Genome of an octopus-derived Pseudoalteromonas reveals unprecedented natural product biosynthesis gene clusters

The highly toxic octopus species Hapalochlaena maculosa is home to a diverse community of microorganisms, some of which are proposed to give rise to small natural products involved in life-sustaining processes such as chemical defence or signalling. The H. maculosa derived bacterial isolate Pseudoalteromonas sp. HM-SA03 was selected for genome sequencing on the basis of its biosynthetic potential as indicated by targeted PCR.

Genome mining of the draft sequence revealed 6 hybrid NPRS-PKS coding biosynthesis gene clusters which display little homology to known clusters. Partial characterisation of these clusters using bioinformatics techniques has allowed structures of these NRPS/PKS products to be predicted. Here we present the complement of NRPS-PKS gene clusters and report on the discovery of some compounds from Pseudoalteromonas sp. HM-SA03.