Natural products in the predatory defence of the filamentous fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

Abstract

The kingdom of fungi comprises a large and highly diverse group of organisms that thrive in diverse natural environments. One factor to successfully confront challenges in their natural habitats is the capability to synthesize defensive secondary metabolites. The genetic potential for the production of secondary metabolites in fungi is high and numerous potential secondary metabolite gene clusters have been identified in sequenced fungal genomes. Their production may well be regulated by specific ecological conditions, such as the presence of microbial competitors, symbionts or predators. Here we exemplarily summarize our current knowledge on identified secondary metabolites of the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and their defensive function against (microbial) predators.

Keywords

• amoeba predation
• aspergillus fumigatus
• fungal ecology
• non-ribosomal peptides
• polyketides
• secondary metabolism
• virulence