[5] Given all these properties of metabolic gene clusters, they play a key role in shaping microbial ecosystems, including microbiome-host interactions.
MIBiG, BiG-FAM Bioinformatic tools have been developed to predict, and determine the abundance and expression of, this kind of gene cluster in microbiome samples, from metagenomic data.
One way to navigate this vast genomic diversity is through comparative analysis of homologous BGCs, which allows identification of cross-species patterns that can be matched to the presence of metabolites or biological activities.
However, current tools are hindered by a bottleneck caused by the expensive network-based approach used to group these BGCs into gene cluster families (GCFs).
[14] Horizontal gene cluster transfer has been linked to ecological niches in which the encoded pathways are thought to provide a benefit.