Fungal Secondary Metabolism

Fungal secondary metabolites (SMs) comprise a vast collection of compounds expendable for these organisms under laboratory conditions. They exhibit enormous chemical diversity, and usually belong to four major families: terpenoids, polyketides, non-ribosomal peptides, or combination the last two. Their functions are very diverse normally associated with greater fitness producing fungi in their environment, which often compete other microorganisms interact host plants. Many SMs have beneficial applications, e.g., as antibiotics medical drugs, but others, known mycotoxins, harmful health.