Unlocking fungal cryptic natural products.
Recent published sequencing of fungal genomes has revealed that these microorganisms have a surprisingly large number of secondary metabolite pathways that can serve as potential sources for new and useful natural products. Most of the secondary metabolites and their biosynthesis pathways are currently unknown, possibly because they are produced in very small amounts and are thus difficult to detect or are produced only under specific conditions. Elucidating these fungal metabolites will require new molecular genetic tools, better understanding of the regulation of secondary metabolism, and state of the art analytical methods. This review describes recent strategies to mine the cryptic natural products and their biosynthetic pathways in fungi.
Chiang
Yi-Ming
YM
Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90033, California, USA.
Lee
Kuan-Han
KH
Sanchez
James F
JF
Keller
Nancy P
NP
Wang
Clay C C
CC
D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry*; D005658:Fungi / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D005810:Multigene Family
D001688:Biological Products