Secondary Metabolites of Mycoparasitic Fungi

Abstract

Mycoparasitic fungi, fungi preying on other fungal species, are prolific producers of volatile and non-volatile secondary metabolites. Several secondary metabolites are produced during mycoparasitism to weaken the host and support attack and parasitism. Further, evidence accumulated that some secondary metabolites also act as communication molecules. Besides their antagonistic activity, several fungal mycoparasites exhibit beneficial effects on plants and some of their secondary metabolites have plant growthpromoting and defense stimulating activities. As many secondary metabolism-associated gene clusters remain silent under standard laboratory conditions, the full variety as well as the underlying biosynthetic pathways employed by fungal mycoparasites for secondary metabolite production still await clarification. Nonetheless, the variety of currently known secondary metabolites and their range of activities is impressive already and they exhibit a great potential for agriculture, pharmacology and other industrial applications.

Targeted Amino Acid Substitutions in a Trichoderma Peptaibol Confer Activity against Fungal Plant Pathogens and Protect Host Tissues from Botrytis cinerea Infection

“…Despite promising features, limitations reduce the practical application of extracted peptaibols. The biosynthesis of peptaibols in nature is influenced by environmental factors and the presence of the antagonized species [ 23 ], conditions hard to reproduce in vitro [ 24 ]. The purification of peptaibols is not trivial, because they are secreted with other secondary metabolites in microheterogeneous mixtures.…”

Biological Management of Banana Fusarium Wilt Caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical Race 4 Using Antagonistic Fungal Isolate CSR-T-3 (Trichoderma reesei)

“…Trichoderma (Teleomorph: Hypocrea ) is a fast-growing soil inhabitant fungus known for the production of a large numbers of spores and has been reported to have biocontrol potentials (Monfil and Casas-Flores, 2014 ). The antagonism of Trichoderma against phytopathogens is achieved by mycoparasitism (Papavizas, 1985 ) through the production of enzymes (chitinases, glucanases, and proteases) that degrade the fungal cell wall which is mainly composed of chitin (Qian et al, 2019 ) as well as antibiosis (Harman and Kubicek, 1998 ); through production of secondary metabolites and antimicrobial compounds active against a wide array of phytopathogens (Speckbacher and Zeilinger, 2018 ). Additionally, when the plant encounters the pathogen it induces a host defense mechanism while on interaction with a non-pathogenic organism the mechanism for induced systemic resistance (ISR) gets activated (Hermosa et al, 2013 ; Mukherjee et al, 2013 ).…”

Rare Glutamic Acid Methyl Ester Peptaibols from Sepedonium ampullosporum Damon KSH 534 Exhibit Promising Antifungal and Anticancer Activity

“…These biological activities appear to be related to the strong foldameric capacity of Aib so that peptaibols would adopt helical structures in artificial bilayers and natural membranes [ 24 ]. Consequently, the amphipathic voltage-dependent helices can act as ion channels in cell membranes, causing cytoplasmic leakage and cellular breakdown [ 24 , 25 ].…”