Elsevier

Gene

Volume 115, Issues 1–2, 15 June 1992, Pages 151-157
Gene

The evolutionary role of secondary metabolites — a review

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-1119(92)90553-2Get rights and content

Abstract

It is argued that organisms have evolved the ability to biosynthesise secondary metabolites (‘natural products’) due to the selectional advantages they obtain as a result of the functions of the compounds. Pleiotropic switching, the simultaneous expression of sporulation and antibiotic biosynthesis genes in Streptomyces, is interpreted in terms of the defense roles of antibiotics. The clustering together of antibiotic biosynthesis, regulation, and resistance genes, and in particular the staggering complexity shown in the case of the gene cluster for erythromycin A biosynthesis, implies that these genes have been selected as a group and that the antibiotics function in antagonistic capacities in nature.

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    Presented at the International Symposium on Biology of Actinomycetes, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (USA) 11–16 August 1991.

    ∗∗

    Present address: Department of Molecular Biology, Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, 10666 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037 (USA) Tel. (619)455-9100.

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