Fungal secondary metabolites in food and pharmaceuticals in the era of multi-omics

Abstract

Fungi produce several bioactive metabolites, pigments, dyes, antioxidants, polysaccharides, and industrial enzymes. Fungal products are also the primary sources of functional food and nutrition, and their pharmacological products are used for healthy aging. Their molecular properties are validated through the use of recent high-throughput genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic tools and techniques. Together, these updated multi-omic tools have been used to study fungal metabolites structure and their mode of action on biological and cellular processes. Diverse groups of fungi produce different proteins and secondary metabolites, which possess tremendous biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications. Furthermore, its use and acceptability can be accelerated by adopting multi-omics, bioinformatics, and machine learning tools that generate a huge amount of molecular data. The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools in the era of omics and big data has opened up a new outlook in both basic and applied researches in the area of nutraceuticals and functional food and nutrition. Key Points • Multi-omic tool helps in the identification of novel fungal metabolites • Intra-omic data from genomics to bioinformatics • Novel metabolites and application in human health

Antifertility Potential of n-Butanol and Ethyl Acetate Extracts of Penicillium oxalicum OM282858 in Male Albino Rats as Biological Control Agents

“…Biological control based on fungi is one of the most promising techniques (Charnley and Collins 2007). The fungal secondary metabolites are significant due to their biological functions and efficiency (Greco et al 2019;Shankar and Sharma, 2022;Weng et al 2022). The present study assessed the possible antifertility effects of P. oxalicum QR20 extracts (n-butanol and ethyl acetate) on adult male albino rats to be used in integrated pest management programs.…”

“…The Penicillium genus is the dominant fungus and is well-known because it produces bioactive secondary metabolites (Zhang et al 2020). After Fleming experimentally discovered penicillin, the bioprospecting efforts of thousands of Penicillium isolates have been tested for their high biological activities (Zhang et al 2020;Shankar and Sharma 2022;Weng et al 2022). Penicillium oxalicum is one of the most abundant of all the Penicillium species (Currie and Thom 1915) that can produce novel bioactive metabolites (Weng et al 2022), which are used to control bacteria, fungi, and insects (Kubátová et al 2019).…”

Mushrooms as future generation healthy foods

“…Lignocellulose biomass waste is the most significant natural complex biopolymer on earth, and its structure of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, being so intricate, affects its biodegradation and rate-limiting steps in the global carbon cycle, atmosphere, oceans, fossil fuels, land, and forests ( 32 ). Most species of mushrooms synthesize numerous fungal enzymes that play important functions in various applications for human, plant, and environment systems ( 33 , 34 ).…”

Polyketides isolated from an endophyte Penicillium oxalicum 2021CDF-3 inhibit pancreatic tumor growth

“…The discovery of penicillin as the first broad-spectrum antibiotic agent by Alexander Fleming in 1928 considered the “wonder drug” of World War II and then started the “Golden Age of Antibiotics” in the last century ( Keller, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ). Subsequently, fungal secondary metabolites have attracted more and more attention due to their rich biological functionality and drugability ( Greco et al, 2019 ; Keller, 2019 ; Shankar and Sharma, 2022 ). The intrinsic properties of fungal secondary metabolites make the study of these natural compounds of great significance ( Hautbergue et al, 2018 ).…”