A number of bacterial strains were isolated from the internal tissue of Trapa japonica. Of these, strain KPE62302H, which had a 16S rDNA sequence identical to that of Streptomyces miharaensis showed antifungal activity against several plant pathogens. Treatment of seeds with strain KPE62302H induced a significant reduction in the incidence of Fusarium wilt in tomato plants compared with untreated controls. An antifungal substance (FP-1) was purified from the culture extract of strain KPE62302H using C18 flash and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography and reverse phase HPLC. Extensive spectrometric analysis using MS and NMR identified this as filipin III. FP-1 inhibited the mycelial growth of plant pathogenic fungi such as Alternaria mali, Aspergillus niger, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, C. orbiculare, Cylindrocarpon destructans, Diaporthe citiri, Fusarium oxysporum at 1-10 μg ml(-1) and also markedly inhibited the development of Fusarium wilt caused by F. oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici in tomato plants by treatment with 10 μg ml(-1) under greenhouse conditions. The efficacy of FP-1 against Fusarium wilt was comparable to that of the synthetic fungicide benomyl. An egfp -tagged strain of KPE62302H confirmed its ability to colonize tomato plants.

During screening of microorganisms producing antifungal metabolites, Streptomyces psammoticus strain KP1404 was isolated. The culture extract of this strain showed potent disease control efficacy against Fusarium wilt on tomato plants. The antifungal metabolites ST-1 and ST-2 were isolated from the culture extract using a variety of chromatographic procedures. On the basis of MS and NMR spectrometric analysis, the structures of the antifungal active compounds ST-1 and ST-2 were determined to be the polyene antibiotics strevertene A and strevertene B, respectively. In vitro, strevertenes A and B showed inhibitory effects against the mycelial growth of Alternaria mali , Aspergillus oryzae , Cylindrocarpon destructans , Colletotrichum orbiculare , Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum , even at concentrations of 4-16 μg/mL. Fusarium wilt development on tomato plants was strongly retarded by treatment with 1 μg/mL of these strevertenes. The disease control efficacies of strevertenes on Fusarium wilt were as remarkable as that of benomyl.

Rimocidin and BU16 would be active ingredients of disease control agents disrupting cell envelope of plant-pathogenic fungi. The structure and antifungal activity of rimocidin derivative BU16 is first described in this study.

Microbial culture extracts are used for natural product screening to find antifungal lead compounds. A microbial culture extract library was constructed using 343 actinomycete isolates to examine the value of the adenylate kinase (AK) assay for screening to identify antifungal metabolites that disrupt cell integrity in plant pathogenic fungi. A culture extract of Streptomyces sp. strain KP6107 lysed cells of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici which resulted in high AK activity. The active ingredient N-1 was purified from the culture extract using various chromatographic procedures and identified to be the guanidyl-polyol macrolide antibiotic, niphimycin, which is a potent fungal cell membrane disruptor. Niphimycin showed broad-spectrum antifungal activity against Alternaria mali, Aspergillus oryzae, Colletotrichum coccodes, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Cercospora canescens, Cylindrocarpon destructans, F. oxysporum f.sp. cucumerinum, F. oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, and Rhizoctonia solani at concentrations of 8-64 µg ml(-1). Anthracnose development in pepper plants was completely inhibited by treatment with 50 µg ml(-1) niphimycin, which was as effective as chlorothalonil. These results show that the AK assay is an efficient and selective tool in screening for cell membrane/wall disruptors of plant pathogenic fungi.

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