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Emerging Investigators in Bioactive Fungal Metabolites, 2nd Edition
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Emerging Investigators in Bioactive Fungal Metabolites, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Cell Biology, Metabolism and Physiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2023) | Viewed by 6996

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alessio Cimmino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte Sant'Angelo, Via Cintia 4, 80126 Naples, Italy
Interests: natural product chemistry; bioactive fungal metabolites; isolation and structure elucidation; chromatographic techniques; spectroscopic methods; biological activity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi are a rich source of biologically active natural compounds. They are able to produce several specialized metabolites belonging to diverse structural classes, including anthracenones, butanolides, butenolides, cytochalasans, macrolides, naphthalenones, pyrones, terpenes, aromatic compounds and amino acids. Fungi interact with plants in various ways, and each interaction originates different alterations in both partners. Pathogenic fungi can produce phytotoxins that are poisonous or toxic for plants and play an important role in plant–pathogen interactions as well as in the development of disease symptoms. Endophitic fungi colonize inner healthy plant tissues without causing disease symptoms to their hosts and are known to confer considerable benefits by producing substances that stimulate plant growth and enhance resistance to biotic and abiotic stress.

Fungi can also produce beneficial or antagonistic metabolites involved in microbe–microbe interactions. Thus, the determination of the chemical structure of bioactive metabolites and their identification is fundamental to understand their function. Furthermore, fungal bioactive metabolites display several interesting biological activities and have potential applications in different fields, such as agriculture or medicine. Considering the biodiversity of the fungal kingdom and that only a small part has been investigated for the production of bioactive compounds, it is clear that a large number of chemical structures and biological activities remain unexplored.

This Special Issue will focus on the isolation and chemical characterization of known and new bioactive metabolites and/or the evaluation of their biological activities for potential applications in different fields.

Dr. Alessio Cimmino
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • natural products
  • pathogenic fungi
  • endophytic fungi
  • bioactive metabolites
  • chemical ecology
  • biopesticides
  • antibiotics
  • drugs.

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2158 KiB  
Article
An Algerian Soil-Living Streptomyces alboflavus Strain as Source of Antifungal Compounds for the Management of the Pea Pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi
by Marco Masi, Dorsaf Nedjar, Moustafa Bani, Ivana Staiano, Maria Michela Salvatore, Karima Khenaka, Stefany Castaldi, Jesus Garcia Zorrilla, Anna Andolfi, Rachele Isticato and Alessio Cimmino
J. Fungi 2024, 10(11), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof10110783 - 12 Nov 2024
Viewed by 500
Abstract
Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi (Fop) poses significant threats to pea cultivation worldwide. Controlling this disease is mainly achieved through the integration of various disease management procedures, among which biological control has proven to be a safe [...] Read more.
Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi (Fop) poses significant threats to pea cultivation worldwide. Controlling this disease is mainly achieved through the integration of various disease management procedures, among which biological control has proven to be a safe and effective approach. This study aims to extract and identify antifungal secondary metabolites from Streptomyces alboflavus KRO3 strain and assess their effectiveness in inhibiting the in vitro growth of Fop. This bacterial strain exerts in vitro antagonistic activity against Fop, achieving highly significant inhibition over one week. The ethyl acetate extract, obtained from its ISP2 agar medium culture, also exhibited strong antifungal activity, maintaining an inhibition rate of approximately 90% at concentrations up to 250 µg/plug compared to the control. Thus, the organic extract has been fractionated using chromatographic techniques and its bioguided purification allowed us to isolate the main bioactive compound. This latter was identified as metacycloprodigiosin using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and specific optical rotation data. Metacycloprodigiosin demonstrates dose-dependent inhibitory activity against the phytopathogen with an effective concentration of 125 µg/plug. The other secondary metabolites present in the ethyl acetate extract were also identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This study highlighted the potential of S. alboflavus KRO3 strain and its antimicrobial compounds for the management of the pea pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Investigators in Bioactive Fungal Metabolites, 2nd Edition)
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16 pages, 2652 KiB  
Article
PrlaeA Affects the Production of Roquefortine C, Mycophenolic Acid, and Andrastin A in Penicillium roqueforti, but It Has Little Impact on Asexual Development
by Yudethzi Marcano, Mariana Montanares, Carlos Gil-Durán, Kathia González, Gloria Levicán, Inmaculada Vaca and Renato Chávez
J. Fungi 2023, 9(10), 954; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9100954 - 22 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1512
Abstract
The regulation of fungal specialized metabolism is a complex process involving various regulators. Among these regulators, LaeA, a methyltransferase protein originally discovered in Aspergillus spp., plays a crucial role. Although the role of LaeA in specialized metabolism has been studied in different fungi, [...] Read more.
The regulation of fungal specialized metabolism is a complex process involving various regulators. Among these regulators, LaeA, a methyltransferase protein originally discovered in Aspergillus spp., plays a crucial role. Although the role of LaeA in specialized metabolism has been studied in different fungi, its function in Penicillium roqueforti remains unknown. In this study, we employed CRISPR-Cas9 technology to disrupt the laeA gene in P. roqueforti (PrlaeA) aiming to investigate its impact on the production of the specialized metabolites roquefortine C, mycophenolic acid, and andrastin A, as well as on asexual development, because they are processes that occur in the same temporal stages within the physiology of the fungus. Our results demonstrate a substantial reduction in the production of the three metabolites upon disruption of PrlaeA, suggesting a positive regulatory role of LaeA in their biosynthesis. These findings were further supported by qRT-PCR analysis, which revealed significant downregulation in the expression of genes associated with the biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) responsible for producing roquefortine C, mycophenolic acid, and andrastin A in the ΔPrlaeA strains compared with the wild-type P. roqueforti. Regarding asexual development, the disruption of PrlaeA led to a slight decrease in colony growth rate, while conidiation and conidial germination remained unaffected. Taken together, our results suggest that LaeA positively regulates the expression of the analyzed BGCs and the production of their corresponding metabolites in P. roqueforti, but it has little impact on asexual development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Investigators in Bioactive Fungal Metabolites, 2nd Edition)
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25 pages, 3050 KiB  
Article
Unprecedented Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Polyketides from Cultures of Diaporthe africana sp. nov.
by Blondelle Matio Kemkuignou, Christopher Lambert, Marc Stadler, Simeon Kouam Fogue and Yasmina Marin-Felix
J. Fungi 2023, 9(7), 781; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9070781 - 24 Jul 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2235
Abstract
Four unprecedented polyketides named isoprenylisobenzofuran B (2), isoprenylisobenzofuran C1/C2 (3), diaporisoindole F1/F2 (4), and isochromophilonol A1/A2 (7) were isolated from ethyl acetate extracts of the newly [...] Read more.
Four unprecedented polyketides named isoprenylisobenzofuran B (2), isoprenylisobenzofuran C1/C2 (3), diaporisoindole F1/F2 (4), and isochromophilonol A1/A2 (7) were isolated from ethyl acetate extracts of the newly described endophytic fungus Diaporthe africana. Additionally, the previously reported cyclic depsipeptide eucalactam B (1) was also identified, along with the known compounds diaporisoindole A/B (5), tenellone B (6) and beauvericin (8). The taxonomic identification of the fungus was accomplished using a polyphasic approach combining multi-gene phylogenetic analysis and microscopic morphological characters. The structures 1–8 were determined by a detailed analysis of their spectral data, namely high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESIMS), 1D/2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, as well as electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. In addition, chemical methods such as Marfey’s analysis were also employed to determine the stereochemistry in compound 1. All the compounds obtained were evaluated for antimicrobial and in vitro cytotoxic properties. Compounds 3–8 were active against certain fungi and Gram-positive bacteria with MIC values of 8.3 to 66.6 µg/mL. In addition, 3–5 displayed cytotoxic effects (22.0 ≤ IC50 ≤ 59.2 µM) against KB3.1 and L929 cell lines, whereas compounds 6–8 inhibited the growth of seven mammalian cancer cell lines with IC50 ranging from 17.7 to 49.5 µM (6), 0.9 to 12.9 µM (7) and 1.9 to 4.3 µM (8). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Investigators in Bioactive Fungal Metabolites, 2nd Edition)
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25 pages, 3322 KiB  
Article
Uncovering Phytotoxic Compounds Produced by Colletotrichum spp. Involved in Legume Diseases Using an OSMAC–Metabolomics Approach
by Pierluigi Reveglia, Francisco J. Agudo-Jurado, Eleonora Barilli, Marco Masi, Antonio Evidente and Diego Rubiales
J. Fungi 2023, 9(6), 610; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9060610 - 25 May 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2324
Abstract
Different fungal species belonging to the Colletotrichum genus cause anthracnose disease in a range of major crops, resulting in huge economic losses worldwide. Typical symptoms include dark, sunken lesions on leaves, stems, or fruits. Colletotrichum spp. have synthesized, in vitro, a number of [...] Read more.
Different fungal species belonging to the Colletotrichum genus cause anthracnose disease in a range of major crops, resulting in huge economic losses worldwide. Typical symptoms include dark, sunken lesions on leaves, stems, or fruits. Colletotrichum spp. have synthesized, in vitro, a number of biologically active and structurally unusual metabolites that are involved in their host’s infection process. In this study, we applied a one strain many compounds (OSMAC) approach, integrated with targeted and non-targeted metabolomics profiling, to shed light on the secondary phytotoxic metabolite panels produced by pathogenic isolates of Colletotrichum truncatum and Colletotrichum trifolii. The phytotoxicity of the fungal crude extracts was also assessed on their primary hosts and related legumes, and the results correlated with the metabolite profile that arose from the different cultural conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the OSMAC strategy integrated with metabolomics approaches has been applied to Colletotrichum species involved in legume diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Investigators in Bioactive Fungal Metabolites, 2nd Edition)
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