Genome mining reveals versatile catalytic modes and novel chemical scaffolds in bacteria, suggesting a new framework for natural product discovery.
Bacterial UbiA prenyltransferases, known for their primary metabolism, are revealed as versatile terpene synthases (TSs) through genome mining. These enzymes operate in two modes: autonomous cyclization to produce structurally diverse terpenes, including unprecedented diterpenes and the first bacterial UbiA-derived sesquiterpenes; and cooperation with type II TSs to replace canonical type I enzymes. Downstream tailoring further diversifies UbiA-derived scaffolds. This work provides a genomic framework for the terpenoid discovery.
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Chen et al. (2026) studied this question.
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