Well before plants and animals, there were fungi.

Coagulase-negative staphylococci secrete natural products that prevent pathogen colonization. Here, the authors identify hominicin, a daptide bacteriocin produced by Staphylococcus hominis that has an...

Dr. Nick Oberlies’ UNCG lab explores cancer-fighting compounds in fungi, the chemistry of medicinal herbs, and energy from nature.

Max Telford translated the technical effort behind studying evolution into a relatable story for every reader in The Tree of Life: Solving Science’s Greatest Puzzle.

Two new compounds were isolated from a freshwater fungus [Hongkongmyces sp. (strain G892)] by bioactivity-directed fractionation against Plasmodium fa…

Structural drawings of secondary metabolites encapsulate a wealth of information, but their static nature hinders their sharing and reuse. At a time when research increasingly relies on, and benefits from, access to comprehensive natural products “big data”, this hindrance is contrary to the norms of science. This Perspective discusses current challenges in sharing and accessing structure data and offers a simple solution, namely, publishing machine-readable text descriptors for new secondary metabolites. Requiring such descriptors will be straightforward to implement for both authors and publishers and will help derive even greater value from the efforts expended to understand the chemistry of Nature.

Microbial conservation is essential for sustaining ecosystem functions and services

Background Perylenequinones, such as hypocrellins and hypomycins, are fungal secondary metabolites with potential for pharmaceutical and industrial applications due to both their physical and biological properties. This study focused on their sustainable production. Additionally, stable isotope labeling was used to probe the biosynthesis of these compounds, demonstrating how sugars are likely incorporated into the perylenequinone scaffold. Methods Shiraia sp. (strain MSX60519; Shiraiaceae, Pleosporales) was cultivated under varying nutrient conditions to evaluate the production of perylenequinones, with sugars serving as primary carbon sources. Five metabolites were isolated (from oatmeal cultures) using environmentally friendly solvent-based techniques, and the process was further optimized to maximize yields. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC–HRMS) were employed to detect, characterize, and quantify the major compounds. Furthermore, feeding experiments were performed using 13C-labeled glucose, with droplet probe mass spectrometry used to monitor stable isotope incorporation in situ. Results This study yielded three key findings. First, the production of perylenequinones was significantly enhanced by supplementing fermentation media with sugars, and disaccharides significantly enhanced the production of perylenequinones compared to monosaccharides. Optimizing sugar concentrations during the fermentation further influenced the profile of secondary metabolites. Second, stable isotope labeling experiments confirmed that sugars are the primary building blocks of perylenequinones, as noted by tracing 13C-labeling into ent-shiraiachrome A (1). Finally, a green, scalable, and sustainable strategy for producing these compounds on the gram scale was developed by optimizing fermentation conditions, refining purification methods, and improving extraction efficiency. Conclusion These findings provide critical insights into optimizing fermentation conditions for the scaled and sustainable production of perylenequinones. This approach offers a cost-effective and environmentally friendly pipeline for harnessing these valuable compounds, paving the way for broader pharmaceutical and industrial applications. Graphical abstract

Two Indianapolis Zoo grant recipients and a team of Conservation Coordinators with the Global Center for Species Survival have discovered an entirely new kind of freshwater fungus in Indiana.

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An illustrated guide to Auatic and Water-Bourne Hyphomycetes (Fungi Inperfecti) with notes on their biology Author: C T Ingold Publisdhed by FBA, 1975 Format Soft Cover, 96 pages ISBN: 900386223

Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, fungi have been at the forefront of natural product discovery (1, 2). To date, over 30,000 fungal secondary metabolites (SMs), small biologically active comp...

Fungal pathogens pose a serious and growing threat to human health. A striking feature of these organisms is their high interspecies phenotypic heterogeneity, which is underpinned by exceptionally dynamic and plastic genomes. For the WHO priority pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, this includes notable variation between strains in gene content, stress resistance, induction of host responses, and virulence in animal models. Notably, most human fungal pathogens, including A. fumigatus, have evolved from non-pathogenic ancestors and therefore remain closely related to non-pathogenic relatives. The study “Strain heterogeneity in a non-pathogenic Aspergillus fungus highlights factors associated with virulence” (1) by Antonis Rokas’ group addresses the key research questions of whether these closely related non-pathogen relatives also possess a substantial degree of interspecific heterogeneity, and to what extent does their phenotypic variation overlaps with that of the pathogenic species, particularly under infection-relevant conditions? Strikingly, the authors find that Aspergillus fischeri, a close non-pathogenic relative of A. fumigatus, displays even greater intraspecific diversity and that this variation frequently overlaps with the pathogenicity-associated phenotypes of A. fumigatus. This study challenges the prevailing practice of categorizing the entire species as “pathogens” or “non-pathogens,” which is often based on research conducted using a single reference strain. Instead, it introduces a population-based framework, where the intraspecific diversity of pathogens and closely related species is defined across a diverse set of strains. This approach allows us to learn not only how these organisms cause disease but also how their virulence evolves.

Nature Communications - Genetic diversity between clinical and environmental fungal isolates of Aspergillus flavus is poorly studied. Here, the authors analysed genomic data from a global set of...

Covering: up to 2025Microbial interactions involve complex processes shaped by their ecological contexts. Herbivore animal dung denotes an interesting ecological niche for the study of interorganism c...

Journals and funders are trying to boost the speed and effectiveness of review processes that are under strain.