Secondary Metabolites Produced by the Deep-Sea-Derived Fungus Engyodontium album

Anti-Vibrio potential of natural products from marine microorganisms

The emergence of drug-resistant Vibrio poses a serious threat to aquaculture and human health, thus there is an urgent need for the discovery of new related antibiotics. Given that marine microorganisms (MMs) are evidenced as important sources of antibacterial natural products (NPs), great attention has been gained to the exploration of potential anti-Vibrio agents from MMs. This review summarizes the occurrence, structural diversity, and biological activities of 214 anti-Vibrio NPs isolated from MMs (from 1999 to July 2022), including 108 new compounds. They were predominantly originated from marine fungi (63%) and bacteria (30%) with great structural diversity, including polyketides, nitrogenous compounds, terpenoids, and steroids, among which polyketides account for nearly half (51%) of them. This review will shed light on the development of MMs derived NPs as potential anti-Vibrio lead compounds with promising applications in agriculture and human health.

Naturally Occurring Organohalogen Compounds-A Comprehensive Review

The present volume is the third in a trilogy that documents naturally occurring organohalogen compounds, bringing the total number-from fewer than 25 in 1968-to approximately 8000 compounds to date. Nearly all of these natural products contain chlorine or bromine, with a few containing iodine and, fewer still, fluorine. Produced by ubiquitous marine (algae, sponges, corals, bryozoa, nudibranchs, fungi, bacteria) and terrestrial organisms (plants, fungi, bacteria, insects, higher animals) and universal abiotic processes (volcanos, forest fires, geothermal events), organohalogens pervade the global ecosystem. Newly identified extraterrestrial sources are also documented. In addition to chemical structures, biological activity, biohalogenation, biodegradation, natural function, and future outlook are presented.

Extremophilic Fungi from Marine Environments: Underexplored Sources of Antitumor, Anti-Infective and Other Biologically Active Agents

Marine environments are underexplored terrains containing fungi that produce a diversity of natural products given unique environmental pressures and nutrients. While bacteria are commonly the most studied microorganism for natural products in the marine world, marine fungi are also abundant but remain an untapped source of bioactive metabolites. Given that their terrestrial counterparts have been a source of many blockbuster antitumor agents and anti-infectives, including camptothecin, the penicillins, and cyclosporin A, marine fungi also have the potential to produce new chemical scaffolds as leads to potential drugs. Fungi are more phylogenetically diverse than bacteria and have larger genomes that contain many silent biosynthetic gene clusters involved in making bioactive compounds. However, less than 5% of all known fungi have been cultivated under standard laboratory conditions. While the number of reported natural products from marine fungi is steadily increasing, their number is still significantly lower compared to those reported from their bacterial counterparts. Herein, we discuss many varied cytotoxic and anti-infective fungal metabolites isolated from extreme marine environments, including symbiotic associations as well as extreme pressures, temperatures, salinity, and light. We also discuss cultivation strategies that can be used to produce new bioactive metabolites or increase their production. This review presents a large number of reported structures though, at times, only a few of a large number of related structures are shown.

Metabolites of Marine Sediment-Derived Fungi: Actual Trends of Biological Activity Studies

Marine sediments are characterized by intense degradation of sedimenting organic matter in the water column and near surface sediments, combined with characteristically low temperatures and elevated pressures. Fungi are less represented in the microbial communities of sediments than bacteria and archaea and their relationships are competitive. This results in wide variety of secondary metabolites produced by marine sediment-derived fungi both for environmental adaptation and for interspecies interactions. Earlier marine fungal metabolites were investigated mainly for their antibacterial and antifungal activities, but now also as anticancer and cytoprotective drug candidates. This review aims to describe low-molecular-weight secondary metabolites of marine sediment-derived fungi in the context of their biological activity and covers research articles published between January 2016 and November 2020.

Relationship between Soil Fungi and Seedling Density in the Vicinity of Adult Conspecifics in an Arid Desert Forest

Research Highlights: 1. Soil fungi have a higher influence on seedling density compared to soil environmental factors; 2. Host-specific pathogens and beneficial fungi affect seeding density via different influencing mechanisms. Background and Objectives: The growth and development of seedlings are the key processes that affect forest regeneration and maintain community dynamics. However, the influencing factors of seedling growth around their adult conspecifics are not clear in arid desert forests. Probing the intrinsic relations among soil fungi, soil environmental factors (pH, water content, salinity, and nutrition), and seedling density will improve our understanding of forest development and provide a theoretical basis for forest management and protection. Materials and Methods: Four experimental plot types, depending on the distance to adult conspecifics, were set in an arid desert forest. Soil environmental factors, the diversity and composition of the soil fungal community, and the seedlings’ density and height were measured in the four experimental plot types, and their mutual relations were analyzed. Results: Seedling density as well as the diversity and composition of the soil fungal community varied significantly among the four plot types (p < 0.05). Soil environmental factors, especially soil salinity, pH, and soil water content, had significant influences on the seedling density and diversity and composition of the soil fungal community. The contribution of soil fungi (72.61%) to the variation in seedling density was much higher than the soil environmental factors (27.39%). The contribution of detrimental fungi to the variation in seedling density was higher than the beneficial fungi. Conclusions: Soil fungi mostly affected the distribution of seedling density in the vicinity of adult conspecifics in an arid desert forest. The distribution of seedling density in the vicinity of adults was mainly influenced by the detrimental fungi, while the adults in the periphery area was mainly influenced by the beneficial fungi.

Molecules derived from the extremes of life: a decade later

Covering: Early 2008 until the end of 2019Microorganisms which survive (extreme-tolerant) or even prefer (extremophilic) living at the limits of pH, temperature, salinity and pressure found on earth have proven to be a rich source of novel structures. In this update we summarise the wide variety of new molecules which have been isolated from extremophilic and extreme-tolerant microorganisms since our original 2009 review, highlighting the range of bioactivities these molecules have been reported to possess.

Marine natural products

Covering: January to December 2017This review covers the literature published in 2017 for marine natural products (MNPs), with 740 citations (723 for the period January to December 2017) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green, brown and red algae, sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates, echinoderms, mangroves and other intertidal plants and microorganisms. The emphasis is on new compounds (1490 in 477 papers for 2017), together with the relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Reviews, biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that led to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included. Geographic distributions of MNPs at a phylogenetic level are reported.

Novel Natural Products from Extremophilic Fungi

Extremophilic fungi have been found to develop unique defences to survive extremes of pressure, temperature, salinity, desiccation, and pH, leading to the biosynthesis of novel natural products with diverse biological activities. The present review focuses on new extremophilic fungal natural products published from 2005 to 2017, highlighting the chemical structures and their biological potential.