Themed collection Big Data and the Changing Landscape of Natural Products Research
Benefiting from big data in natural products: importance of preserving foundational skills and prioritizing data quality
Big data is changing how we do natural products research and creating exciting new possibilities. Continued attention to enhancing data quality, increasing access, and preserving foundational skills is needed.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 1947-1953
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00061F
Predicting biochemical and physiological effects of natural products from molecular structures using machine learning
This Highlight examines recently developed machine learning models to predict biological effects of natural products with focus on molecular featurization.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 1954-1966
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00016K
Genome mining methods to discover bioactive natural products
The continual growth of publicly available genomic databases offers researchers unprecedented bioinformatic opportunities. This review examines different approaches to mining genomic data for the targeted discovery of bioactive natural products.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 2100-2129
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00032B
Needles in haystacks: reevaluating old paradigms for the discovery of bacterial secondary metabolites
Strategies to enhance the rate of natural product discovery from bacteria provide guidance for designing discovery initiatives.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 2083-2099
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00044F
Advancements in capturing and mining mass spectrometry data are transforming natural products research
This review covers the current and potential use of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data mining in natural products. Public data, metadata, databases and data analysis tools are critical. The value and success of data mining rely on community participation.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 2066-2082
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00040C
Metabolomics and genomics in natural products research: complementary tools for targeting new chemical entities
Here we provide a comprehensive guide for studying natural product biosynthesis using genomics, metabolomics, and their integrated datasets. We emphasize integrated strategies and provide a critical outlook on remaining challenges in the field.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 2041-2065
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00036E
The confluence of big data and evolutionary genome mining for the discovery of natural products
The development and application of evolutionary genome mining tools and databases has propelled natural products research into the modern age of Big Data.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 2024-2040
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00013F
Advances in decomposing complex metabolite mixtures using substructure- and network-based computational metabolomics approaches
This review highlights the key computational tools and emerging strategies for metabolite annotation, and discusses how these advances will enable integrated large-scale analysis to accelerate natural product discovery.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 1967-1993
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00023C
A roadmap for metagenomic enzyme discovery
Shotgun metagenomic approaches to uncover new enzymes are underdeveloped relative to PCR- or activity-based functional metagenomics. Here we review computational and experimental strategies to discover biosynthetic enzymes from metagenomes.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 1994-2023
https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NP00006C
Microbial natural product databases: moving forward in the multi-omics era
Online databases are becoming key to natural product research, as publication of data is increasingly digitized. Here, we review databases of chemical structures, gene clusters and analytical data, and discuss key challenges and opportunities.
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021,38, 264-278
https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NP00053A
About this collection
This themed issue is Guest Edited by Professors Nadja B. Cech, Jon Clardy, and Marnix H. Medema