放线菌是一类庞大且多样的细菌群，其已知可产生各种次生代谢物，其中许多具有重要的生物活性，包括抗生素、抗癌剂和免疫抑制剂。这些化合物的生物合成通常受到严格调控，在实验室环境中，许多天然产物仅以非常低的水平产生。环境因素，如小分子诱导物，可以诱导次生代谢物的产生。特别是，它们可以提高已知天然产物的产量，并能发现通常以不可检测水平产生的新型天然产物。这些诱导物可以是天然产物，包括抗生素或激素，也可以是合成化合物。近年来，人们对利用小分子诱导物诱导放线菌产生次生代谢物的兴趣日益增长，特别是用于发现“静默”生物合成基因簇中的天然产物。本综述旨在强调在放线菌中诱导次生代谢物产生的分子类别，并描述诱导机制的潜在机制。© 作者2023年。由牛津大学出版社代表工业微生物学和生物技术协会出版。

Actinobacteria are a large and diverse group of bacteria that are known to produce a wide range of secondary metabolites, many of which have important biological activities, including antibiotics, anti-cancer agents, and immunosuppressants. The biosynthesis of these compounds is often highly regulated with many natural products being produced at very low levels in laboratory settings. Environmental factors, such as small molecule elicitors, can induce the production of secondary metabolites. Specifically, they can increase titers of known natural products as well as enabling discovery of novel natural products typically produced at undetectable levels. These elicitors can be natural products, including antibiotics or hormones, or synthetic compounds. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of small molecule elicitors to induce the production of secondary metabolites from actinobacteria, especially for the discovery of natural products from "silent" biosynthetic gene clusters. This review aims to highlight classes of molecules that induce secondary metabolite production in actinobacteria and to describe the potential mechanisms of induction.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.