Selected Fungal Natural Products with Antimicrobial Properties

Abstract

Fungal natural products and their effects have been known to humankind for hundreds of years. For example, toxic ergot alkaloids produced by filamentous fungi growing on rye poisoned thousands of people and livestock throughout the Middle Ages. However, their later medicinal applications, followed by the discovery of the first class of antibiotics, penicillins and other drugs of fungal origin, such as peptidic natural products, terpenoids or polyketides, have altered the historically negative reputation of fungal "toxins". The development of new antimicrobial drugs is currently a major global challenge, mainly due to antimicrobial resistance phenomena. Therefore, the structures, biosynthesis and antimicrobial activity of selected fungal natural products are described here.

Keywords: antimicrobial properties; antimicrobial resistance; biosynthesis; ergot alkaloids; fungal metabolites; natural products; peptides; polyketides; terpenoids.

Figure 1

(A) Examples of clavines. (B) Simple lysergic acid derivatives. (C) The unusual ergoline scaffold of cycloclavine. (D) Ergopeptides consisting of D-lysergic acid with a cyclic tripeptide moiety [14].

Figure 2

Structures of the selected fungal polyketides: Strobilurin A 9, oudemansin A 10, azoxystrobin 11, uredinorubellins I and II (12–13) rubellins A–D (14–17), viriditoxin 18, lindgomycin 19, corollosporine 20.

Figure 3

Structures of selected fungal ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs).

Figure 4

Diverse structures of selected non-ribosomal peptide (NRP)-derived fungal natural products.

Figure 5

Structures of selected fungal terpenoids.