The microbial product library for high-throughput screening at Lepetit Research center*

Publisher Summary Natural microbial communities are considered an important and innovative source of new pharmacologically active molecules, novel molecular templates for combinatorial chemistry as well as of new biocatalysts. This chapter focuses on the description of the microbial strain collection and the microbial product library, which are used in HTS programs for the discovery of natural products at Lepetit research center. The microbial strain collection contains approximately 22,000 microorganisms represented by 24.5% fungi, 27% streptomycetes and 48.5% of other actinomycetes. A microbial product library, which will be of 100,000 samples at maturity, is currently being generated by fermenting strains in multiple media to enhance the expression of microbial diversity. Generally two or three media are used for each strain. These media, which are generally complex and not completely soluble, are designed to trigger and maximize the secondary metabolism of the different microorganisms, but also to anticipate the successful requirements for the further scaling-up of the fermentation process.