Chemical-biogeographic survey of secondary metabolism in soil

The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) rumen microbiome

Recent studies have shown that wild ruminants are sources of previously undescribed microorganisms, knowledge of which can improve our understanding of the complex microbial interactions in the foregut. Here, we investigated the microbial community of seven wild-caught giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), three of which were fed natural browse and four were fed Boskos pellets, leafy alfalfa hay, and cut savanna browse, by characterizing the 16S rRNA gene diversity using 454 FLX high-throughput sequencing. The microbial community composition varied according to diet, but differed little between the ruminal fluid and solid fraction. The giraffe rumen contained large levels of the phyla of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes independent of diet, while Prevotella, Succinclasticium, and Methanobrevibacter accounted for the largest abundant taxonomic assigned genera. However, up to 21% of the generated sequences could not been assigned to any known bacterial phyla, and c. 70% not to genus, revealing that the giraffe rumen hosts a variety of previously undescribed bacteria.

eSNaPD: a versatile, web-based bioinformatics platform for surveying and mining natural product biosynthetic diversity from metagenomes

Environmental Surveyor of Natural Product Diversity (eSNaPD) is a web-based bioinformatics and data aggregation platform that aids in the discovery of gene clusters encoding both novel natural products and new congeners of medicinally relevant natural products using (meta)genomic sequence data. Using PCR-generated sequence tags, the eSNaPD data-analysis pipeline profiles biosynthetic diversity hidden within (meta)genomes by comparing sequence tags to a reference data set of characterized gene clusters. Sample mapping, molecule discovery, library mapping, and new clade visualization modules facilitate the interrogation of large (meta)genomic sequence data sets for diverse downstream analyses, including, but not limited to, the identification of environments rich in untapped biosynthetic diversity, targeted molecule discovery efforts, and chemical ecology studies. eSNaPD is designed to generate a global atlas of biosynthetic diversity that can facilitate a systematic, sequence-based interrogation of nature's biosynthetic potential.