Nidulantes of Aspergillus (Formerly Emericella): A Treasure Trove of Chemical Diversity and Biological Activities

Abstract

The genus Emericella (Ascomycota) includes more than thirty species with worldwide distribution across many ecosystems. It is considered a rich source of diverse metabolites. The published classes of natural compounds that are discussed here are organized according to the following biosynthetic pathways: polyketides (azaphilones, cyclopentenone pigments, dicyanides, furan derivatives, phenolic ethers, and xanthones and anthraquinones); shikimate derivatives (bicoumarins); mevalonate derivatives (meroterpenes, sesquiterpenes, sesterterpenes and steroids) and amino acids derivatives (alkaloids (indole-derivatives, isoindolones, and piperazine) and peptides (depsipeptides)). These metabolites produce the wide array of biological effects associated with Emericella, including antioxidant, antiproliferative, antimalarial, antiviral, antibacterial, antioxidant, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antifungal and kinase inhibitors. Careful and extensive study of the diversity and distribution of metabolites produced by the genus Emericella (either marine or terrestrial) revealed that, no matter the source of the fungus, the composition of the culture medium effectively controls the metabolites produced. The topic of this review is the diversity of metabolites that have been identified from Emericella, along with the contextual information on either their biological or geographic sources. This review presents 236 natural compounds, which were reported from marine and terrestrial Emericella. Amongst the reported compounds, only 70.2% were biologically assayed for their effects, including antimicrobial or cytotoxicity. This implies the need for substantial investigation of alternative activities. This review includes a full discussion of compound structures and disease management, based on materials published from 1982 through December 2019.

Taxonomy Driven Discovery of Polyketides from Aspergillus californicus

“…31 The polyketides described here add to the large chemical diversity of metabolites from Aspergillus subgenus Nidulantes. 1,9,32 So far in the genus Aspergillus, polyketides with a phthalide moiety include several from subgenus Fumigati section Fumigati (Aspergillus duricaulis), 33 others from subgenus Nidulantes, including asperlide in A. unguis, 34 porriolides (silvaticols, and the nitrogen-containing cichorine) in A. nidulans and A. silvaticus, 35,36 emefuranones in an Aspergillus ("Emericella") species from section Usti or Cavernicolarum, 29 austalides in A. ustus, 37 A. aureolatus, 38 and A. alabamensis, 39 and mycophenolic acids from subgenus Aspergillus section Restricti (A. glabripes, A. gracilis, A. pachycaulis, A. penicillioides, and A. tardicrescens), 40 section Aspergillus (A. pseudoglaucus), 41 and also from subgenus Fumigati section Fumigati (A. unilaterialis). 42 However, none of those phthalides resemble 2−4 except the emefuranones.…”

Antibacterial Activity of Bioactive Compounds from Endophytic Fungi against P. aeruginosa isolated from Freshwater Fishes

“…(no 4), Cladosporium sp., A. niger and E. nidulans. The antimicrobial activities of these fungi were fully discussed in former reports (Yadav et al, 2014;Alburae et al, 2020). The MIC range of the endophytic fungal extracts varied from 1.56 -25 mg/ml.…”

Fungal Diversity and Its Relationship with Environmental Factors in Coastal Sediments from Guangdong, China

“…Further subdivided at the taxonomic level, according to an analysis of the relative abundance of the top 19 genera ( Figure 2 ), the dominant fungal genera were Archaeorhizomyces (16.21%) and Aspergillus (14.14%). This conclusion was not surprising, as these two genera of fungi are widely distributed in a variety of ecosystems around the world [ 47 ]. In terms of trophic types, they are potential saprotrophic microorganisms.…”