New integrated approach for fungal natural product discovery based on co-occurrence networks of interacting microbes

The project “New integrated approach for fungal natural product discovery based on co-occurrence networks of interacting microbes” is a collaborative effort between UiT – The Arctic University of Norway and the University of Bremen, Germany, involving research exchange activities of three early career scientists (ECSs) and two principal investigators (PIs). The main objective of the scientific project that forms the basis for the collaborative effort is to test and introduce a new integrated approach for natural product discovery to the natural product community. Secondary objectives include preparing a joint European Horizon application based on results from this project, increase cultivability of marine fungi using co-culturing and increase the production of marine fungal bioactive secondary metabolites. The collaborative project is based on data mining of high-throughput sequencing datasets from Dyrøy (Troms, Norway) and Helgoland Roads (North Sea, Germany) using co-occurrence networks to find interacting microbes (amongst thousands of co-existing microbes) that live in close association with each other. Putatively interacting pairs/groups of microbes will be isolated from both study localities and brought into laboratory, where they are cultured in multi-partner co-cultures and studied for new bioactive secondary metabolites, with the focus in detecting antimicrobial molecules that possess medicinal potential. The project contributes to more targeted culturing campaigns for different scientific or applied purposes in academia and industry and better integration of molecular ecologists in natural product discovery. It also provides ECSs and PIs with scientific and transferrable skills and contributes to boosting their international scientific careers. Major impacts of the project may be realized in the form of new antibiotics that increase society’s ability to meet the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).