Type II Polyketide Synthases: A Bioinformatics-Driven Approach

Bioinformatics has become an indispensable tool for natural products research in the genomic era. One of the key challenges is to accurately convert sequence data of a biosynthetic gene cluster into chemical information such as the enzymatic function or the biosynthetic product structure. Type II polyketide synthase is the most bioinformatically well-studied class of non-modular biosynthetic machinery and represents a model system to showcase bioinformatic applications in natural products research. This review takes a bioinformatics-centered perspective and summarizes the past advances and future opportunities of bioinformatics-guided research on type II polyketide synthases. How bioinformatics has contributed to deepen the chemical understanding of type II PKSs will be discussed with the focus on enzymology, evolution, structural prediction of the biosynthetic products, genome mining, and the global analyses of their polyketide products.

Automated summary

Bioinformatics has become an essential tool in natural products research, particularly in converting sequence data of biosynthetic gene clusters into chemical information. Type II polyketide synthase, a well-studied class of non-modular biosynthetic machinery, serves as a model system to demonstrate the applications of bioinformatics in this field. This review highlights the contributions of bioinformatics in enhancing the understanding of type II polyketide synthases in terms of enzymology, evolution, structural prediction of biosynthetic products, genome mining, and global analysis of polyketide products.