(A) Sequence-based (meta)genomics leverages the power of predictive bioinformatics tools to identify biosynthetic gene clusters in the available sequence data and guide the targeted discovery of bacterial metabolites. This approach was used to discover the novel antibiotic lactocillin and various dipeptide aldehydes with implications in mammalian protease inhibition.
(B) In the synthetic-bioinformatic natural product (syn-BNP) workflow, specific chemical structures of natural products are predicted from analyses of biosynthetic gene clusters, and these molecules are chemically synthesized and subsequently tested for biological activity, such as antibiosis in the case of the humimycins.