HEx: A heterologous expression platform for the discovery of fungal natural products

Authors: Colin J. B. Harvey, Man‐Cheng Tang, Ulrich Schlecht, Joe Horecka, Curt R. Fischer, Hsiao‐Ching Lin, Jian Li, Brian Naughton, James A. Cherry, Molly Miranda, Yong Fuga Li, Angela Chu, James R. Hennessy, Gergana A Vandova, Diane O. Inglis, Raeka S. Aiyar, Lars M. Steinmetz, Ronald W. Davis, Marnix H. Medema, Elizabeth S. Sattely, Chaitan Khosla, Robert P. St.Onge, Yi Tang, Maureen E. Hillenmeyer - Science Advances 2018 cited by 262

. We applied this platform to 41 fungal biosynthetic gene clusters from diverse fungal species from around the world, 22 of which produced detectable compounds. These included novel compounds with unexpected biosynthetic origins, particularly from poorly studied species. This result establishes the HEx platform for rapid discovery of natural products from any fungal species, even those that are uncultivable, and opens the door to discovery of the next generation of natural products.