Secondary metabolites of Aspergillus nidulans

UnrestrictedThe complete sequencing of genomes of several Aspergillus species, including A. nidulans, revealed that these fungal species have a potential to produce a surprising large range of natural products. The discovery of new natural products and their biosynthetic pathway in A. nidulans has been facilitated by a rapid gene modification technique by which the replacement of targeted genes, can be achieved within a few days instead of months. The natural products emericellamides A, C-F, a family of cyclic polyketide/nonribosomal peptides, biosynthesized by the mixed PKS/NRPS cluster (AN2544-AN2547), have been identified with the application of this rapid method. Once the emericellamide gene cluster was successfully elucidated, it was undertaken to determine the genes responsible for the biosynthetic pathway of two terpenes, austinol and dehydroaustinol, in the same species. Although the preliminary data showed that the four putative terpene cyclase genes that were studied are not responsible for the terpene biosynthesis pathway in A. nidulans, additional candidate genes are currently being examined