Covering: 2021 to 2024Streptomyces species have long been recognised as prolific sources of novel natural products, generating a wide array of clinically-relevant antimicrobial and cytotoxic compounds. In this review, we examine 174 publications from 2021 to 2024 that describe 716 previously unreported secondary metabolites isolated from Streptomyces strains sourced from a range of marine and terrestrial environments. Natural product researchers used a variety of chemical and biological techniques, including genome mining, molecular networking, and heterologous expression, to uncover novel compounds with a diverse array of structures, including cyclic and linear peptides, macrocyclic, polyaromatic, and other polyketides, terpenoids, alkaloids, and azoxy compounds, among others. The variety of bioactivities exhibited by these secondary metabolites, including antibacterial, anticancer, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory effects, illustrates the enduring potential of the Streptomyces genus to produce promising new bioactive natural products.
Cunliffe et al. (2026) studied this question.