Genome-Inspired Chemical Exploration of Marine Fungus <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i> MF071

• Main Authors: Jianying Han, Miaomiao Liu, Ian D. Jenkins, Xueting Liu, Lixin Zhang, Ronald J. Quinn, Yunjiang Feng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Marine Drugs
• Subjects: <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i>; genome mining; chemical diversity; antimicrobial activity; biosynthetic gene cluster; prenyltransferase
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/18/7/352

The marine-derived fungus <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>fumigatus</i> MF071, isolated from sediment collected from the Bohai Sea, China, yielded two new compounds 19<i>S</i>,20-epoxy-18-oxotryprostatin A (<b>1</b>) and 20-hydroxy-18-oxotryprostatin A (<b>2</b>), in addition to 28 known compounds (<b>3</b>–<b>30</b>). The chemical structures were established on the basis of 1D, 2D NMR and HRESIMS spectroscopic data. This is the first report on NMR data of monomethylsulochrin-4-sulphate (<b>4</b>) and pseurotin H (<b>10</b>) as naturally occurring compounds. Compounds <b>15</b>, <b>16</b>, <b>20</b>, <b>23</b>, and <b>30</b> displayed weak antibacterial activity (minimum inhibitory concentration: 100 μg/mL). Compounds <b>18</b> and <b>19</b> exhibited strong activity against <i>S. aureus</i> (minimum inhibitory concentration: 6.25 and 3.13 μg/mL, respectively) and <i>E. coli</i> (minimum inhibitory concentration: 6.25 and 3.13 μg/mL, respectively). A genomic data analysis revealed the putative biosynthetic gene clusters <i>ftm</i> for fumitremorgins, <i>pso</i> for pseurotins, <i>fga</i> for fumigaclavines, and <i>hel</i> for helvolinic acid. These putative biosynthetic gene clusters fundamentally underpinned the enzymatic and mechanistic function study for the biosynthesis of these compounds. The current study reported two new compounds and biosynthetic gene clusters of fumitremorgins, pseurotins, fumigaclavines and helvolinic acid from <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>fumigatus</i> MF071.