Using a combined culturomics-driven activation and metabologenomics approach, a new family of lipopeptides, nocardins A-E (1-5, respectively), were identified and isolated from Arctic-derived Nocardia sp. L016. Their planar structures and absolute configurations were determined through comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and Marfey's analysis. Biosynthetically, nocardins are assembled by a previously uncharacterized NRPS gene cluster (ncd). Notably, 1 and 2 demonstrated significant anti-influenza activity against the PR8 virus, exhibiting potency 2-4-fold higher than that of positive control ribavirin. This integrated omics strategy provides an effective route for accelerating the discovery of new structurally unique natural products from extremophiles.
Xu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.