Biosynthesis of Antibacterial Iron-Chelating Tropolones in as Response to Glycopeptide-Producing Streptomycetes.

The soil microbiome comprises numerous filamentous fungi and bacteria that mutually react and challenge each other by the production of bioactive secondary metabolites. Herein, we show in liquid co-cultures that the presence of filamentous Streptomycetes producing antifungal glycopeptide antibiotics induces the production of the antibacterial and iron-chelating tropolones anhydrosepedonin () and antibiotic C () in the mold . Additionally, the biosynthesis of the related polyketide tripyrnidone () was induced, whose novel tricyclic scaffold we elucidated by NMR and HRESIMS data.

The asexual pathogen aspergillus fumigatus expresses functional determinants of Aspergillus nidulans sexual development.

The major fungal pathogen of humans, Aspergillus fumigatus, lacks a defined sexual cycle, although the presence of genes encoding putative mating type idiomorphs and regulators of Aspergillus sexual development heightens the potential for cryptic sexuality in this deuteromycete. To test the functionality of these genetic determinants, we transferred the alpha box-encoding mat1-1 idiomorph from an A. fumigatus isolate to the homothallic fertile species Aspergillus nidulans.