Journal Article

Strategies for mining fungal natural products

Wiemann, Philipp, Keller, Nancy P

2014

Overview

Fungi are well known for their ability to produce a multitude of natural products. On the one hand their potential to provide beneficial antibiotics and immunosuppressants has been maximized by the pharmaceutical industry to service the market with cost-efficient drugs. On the other hand identification of trace amounts of known mycotoxins in food and feed samples is of major importance to ensure consumer health and safety. Although several fungal natural products, their biosynthesis and regulation are known today, recent genome sequences of hundreds of fungal species illustrate that the secondary metabolite potential of fungi has been substantially underestimated. Since expression of genes and subsequent production of the encoded metabolites are frequently cryptic or silent under standard laboratory conditions, strategies for activating these hidden new compounds are essential. This review will cover the latest advances in fungal genome mining undertaken to unlock novel products.

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag,Oxford University Press,Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Subject: Antibiotics / Biochemistry / Bioinformatics / Biological Products / Biological Products - chemistry / Biological Products - metabolism / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biosynthesis / Biotechnology / chemistry / Enzymes / enzymology / foods / Fungi / Fungi - enzymology / Fungi - genetics / Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal / Genes / Genetic Engineering / genetics / Genome, Fungal / Genomes / Genomics / Gram-positive bacteria / Immunosuppressive agents / Inorganic Chemistry / Laboratories / Life Sciences / markets / Metabolism / Metabolites / Microbiology / Mycotoxins / Natural products / nucleotide sequences / Penicillin / Peptides / Pharmaceutical industry / Review / Secondary Metabolism / Secondary Metabolism - genetics / secondary metabolites / Studies / Toxins