The echinocandins are the newest class of antifungal agents in the clinical armory. These secondary metabolites are non-competitive inhibitors of the synthesis of beta-(1,3)-glucan, a major structural component of the fungal cell wall. Recent work has shown that spontaneous mutations can arise in two hot spot regions of Fks1 the target protein of echinocandins that reduce the enzyme's sensitivi...

This study was carried out to evaluate the Brine shrimp lethality (cytotoxicity), antiglycation, phytotoxicity, antiplatelet, antifungal, and antibacterial activities of Ajuga bracteosa. The n-hexane fraction of Ajuga bracteosa was investigated for various biological activities in vitro. Hexane extract showed promising phytotoxicity (100%) at the highest dose only. Interestingly, n-hexane fract...

The fungal genus Paecilomyces comprises numerous pathogenic and saprobic species, which are regularly isolated from insects, nematodes, soil, air, food, paper and many other materials. Some of the Paecilomyces species have been known to exhibit capabilities for curing human diseases. Here, bioactivities of metabolites from some soil inhabitant and invertebrate pathogenic Paecilomyces species we...

Pathogens must be able to overcome both host defenses and antimicrobial treatment in order to successfully infect and maintain colonization of the host. One way fungi accomplish this feat and overcome intercellular toxin accumulation is efflux pumps, in particular ATP-binding cassette transporters and transporters of the major facilitator superfamily. Members of these two superfamilies remove m...

In our search for bioactive metabolites from marine organisms, we have investigated the polar fraction of the organic extract of the Red Sea sponge Theonella swinhoei. Successive chromatographic separations and final HPLC purification of the potent antifungal fraction afforded a new bicyclic glycopeptide, theonellamide G. The structure of the peptide was determined using extensive 1D and 2D NMR...

Bacteria are able to synthesis a wide range of metabolites with fungicidal capabilities. The antagonistic potential of soil bacterial strains (E. coli, Baccillus fortis, B. faragiris, Pseudomonas flourescence and P. malophilia) was assessed by the dual culture technique against some food pathogenic fungi, i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Penicillium italicum and P. simplicissmum. The result i...

Streptomyces spp. have the ability to produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites that interact with the environment. This study aimed to discover antifungal volatiles from the genus Streptomyces and to determine the mechanisms of inhibition. Volatiles identified from Streptomyces spp. included three major terpenes, geosmin, caryolan-1-ol and an unknown sesquiterpene. antiSMASH and KEGG pre...

Stenocarpella maydis is a fungal pathogen of major importance that causes a dry-rot of maize ears and is associated with a neuromycotoxicosis in cattle grazing harvested maize fields in southern Africa and Argentina. In an effort to investigate the potential roles of S. maydis metabolites in the fungal disease cycle, ethyl acetate extracts of solid-substrate fermentations of several S. maydis i...

Selection pressure exerted by insects and microorganisms shapes the diversity of plant secondary metabolites. We identified a metabolic pathway for glucosinolates, known insect deterrents, that differs from the pathway activated by chewing insects. This pathway is active in living plant cells, may contribute to glucosinolate turnover, and has been recruited for broad-spectrum antifungal defense...

Pseudomonas is a complex genus with increasing numbers of new species. Recently, we isolated sp. strain L22-9, which showed antifungal activity against several fungal phytopathogens. Here, report the whole genome sequence L22-9. Genomic analysis revealed that L22-9 contains one circular DNA chromosome 6,730,360 bp length 60.9% GC content. Bioinformatics identified gene clusters in synthesize an...