How life is possible without oxygen

Anaerobic bacteria, are a group of microorganisms that thrive in the absence of oxygen. They have a significant impact on the quality of life on Earth and are essential components of the gut microbiota. As such, they are of tremendous importance for human, animal, and environmental health. On the other hand, certain anaerobes can be life-threatening pathogens. They also play a crucial role in biotechnology.

In light of this, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of the specialized metabolites of anaerobes, which could function as chemical mediators, virulence factors, and antibiotics. Although genome analyses indicate that anaerobic bacteria hold an enormous potential for producing structurally unique compounds, biosynthetic gene clusters are typically downregulated or silent under laboratory conditions.

Synthetic biology approaches to unearth these cryptic pathways have been hampered by the lack of universal activation strategies, the cumbersome genetic tractability of anaerobes, and the incompatibility of standard expression systems with the oxygen-sensitive biosynthetic enzymes.

The “AnoxyGen” project seeks to unearth the structural wealth of natural products from the anaerobic world and leverage their unique biosynthetic machinery using a versatile anaerobic expression platform.

This research program comprises four work packages aimed at

• refining synthetic biology tools
• create anaerobes with increased functionality
• discovering new drug candidates and virulence factors
• engineering biosynthetic pathways to create metabolic diversity.

“AnoxyGen” will grant a comprehensive overview on specialized metabolites and biocatalysts of anaerobes, which have translational value for medicine, ecology, and biotechnology. In addition to providing valuable methods and tools to the scientific community, the results of the project have the potential to bring benefits for the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment.

“AnoxyGen” also enriches the Balance of the Microverse Cluster of Excellence and is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Union.