Biosynthetic pathways for secondary metabolites usually make many products, not just one. In this Commentary, we consider why molecular promiscuity might be an evolutionarily advantageous feature of these pathways.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Speciation in a MacArthur model predicts growth, stability, and adaptation in ecosystem dynamics
Theoretical Ecology Open Access 29 June 2023
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Stone, M.J. & Williams, D.H. Mol. Microbiol. 6, 29–34 (1992).
Williams, D.H., Stone, M.J., Hauck, P.R. & Rahman, S.K. J. Nat. Prod. 52, 1189–1208 (1989).
Choi, J., Chen, J., Schreiber, S.L. & Clardy, J. Science 273, 239–242 (1996).
Firn, R.D. & Jones, C.G. Mol. Microbiol. 37, 989–994 (2000).
Firn, R.D. & Jones, C.G. Nat. Prod. Rep. 20, 382–391 (2003).
Firn, R.D. & Jones, C.G. Trends Plant Sci. 11, 112–113 (2006); author reply 11, 113–114 (2006).
Tudzynski, B. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 66, 597–611 (2005).
Hedden, P., Phillips, A.L., Rojas, M.C., Carrera, E. & Tudzynski, B. J. Plant Growth Regul. 20, 319–331 (2001).
Thulasiram, H.V., Erickson, H.K. & Poulter, C.D. Science 316, 73–76 (2007).
Phillips, D.R., Rasbery, J.M., Bartel, B. & Matsuda, S.P. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 9, 305–314 (2006).
Yoshikuni, Y., Ferrin, T.E. & Keasling, J.D. Nature 440, 1078–1082 (2006).
Zhang, H., Shibuya, M., Yokota, S. & Ebizuka, Y. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 26, 642–650 (2003).
Richards, D.E., King, K.E., Ait-Ali, T. & Harberd, N.P. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 52, 67–88 (2001).
Carroll, S.B. Cell 101, 577–580 (2000).
Brady, S.F., Bondi, S.M. & Clardy, J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 9900–9901 (2001).
Acknowledgements
We dedicate this paper to A.I. Scott for his pioneering efforts in natural product biosynthesis. We thank C. Walsh for helpful discussions. J.C. is supported by US National Institutes of Health grants CA59021 and CA24487, and M.A.F. is supported by a fellowship from the Hertz Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fischbach, M., Clardy, J. One pathway, many products. Nat Chem Biol 3, 353–355 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0707-353
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0707-353
This article is cited by
-
Speciation in a MacArthur model predicts growth, stability, and adaptation in ecosystem dynamics
Theoretical Ecology (2023)
-
The synthesis of diverse terpene architectures from phenols
Nature Synthesis (2022)
-
Native mass spectrometry-based metabolomics identifies metal-binding compounds
Nature Chemistry (2022)
-
Biology and applications of co-produced, synergistic antimicrobials from environmental bacteria
Nature Microbiology (2021)
-
Pass-back chain extension expands multimodular assembly line biosynthesis
Nature Chemical Biology (2020)