Butyrolactone I [alpha-oxo-beta-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-gamma-(p-hydroxy-m-3, 3-dimethylallyl-benzyl)-gamma-methoxycarbonyl-gamma-butyrolactone] is produced as a secondary metabolite by Aspergillus terreus. Because small butyrolactone-containing molecules act as self-regulating factors in some bacteria, the effects of butyrolactone I on the producing organism were studied; specifically, changes in mo...

The microbial secondary metabolome encompasses great synthetic diversity, empowering microbes to tune their chemical responses to changing microenvironments. Traditional metabolomics methods are ill-equipped to probe a wide variety of environments or environmental dynamics. Here we introduce a class of microscale culture platforms to analyse chemical diversity of fungal and bacterial secondary ...

An oxygen electrode inserted into a dead Munducu sex~u larva infected with Heterorhabditis nematodes carrying the bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens showed barely detectable levels of oxygen in a 1 to 2 mm zone below the cuticle, and virtual anaerobiosis deeper in the carcass. This observation indicates that the bacteria in this habitat, where they are actively growing, are probably carrying ou...

Filamentous fungi produce a number of small bioactive molecules as part of their secondary metabolism ranging from benign antibiotics such as penicillin to threatening mycotoxins such as aflatoxin. Secondary metabolism can be linked to fungal developmental programs in response to various abiotic or biotic external triggers. The velvet family of regulatory proteins plays a key role in coordinati...

The biosynthesis of multiple secondary metabolites in the phytopathogenic ascomycete Fusarium fujikuroi is strongly affected by nitrogen availability. Here, we present the first genome-wide transcriptome and proteome analysis that compared the wild type and deletion mutants of the two major nitrogen regulators AreA and AreB. We show that AreB acts not simply as an antagonist of AreA counteracti...

Fermentation has historically played an important role in the production of several commodities such as bread and alcoholic beverages. Today, fermentation is also used to produce specific flavor compounds in multiple industries. Flavor compounds are secondary metabolites produced during fermentation in addition to primary metabolites, such as ethanol. Secondary metabolism is influenced by ferme...

In filamentous fungi, secondary metabolism is often linked with developmental processes such as conidiation. In this study we analyzed the link between secondary metabolism and conidiation in the main industrial producer of the β-lactam antibiotic penicillin, the ascomycete Penicillium chrysogenum. Therefore, we generated mutants defective in two central regulators of conidiation, the transcrip...

LysR-type transcriptional regulators (LTTRs) compose a large family and are responsible for various physiological functions in bacteria, while little is understood about their regulatory mechanism on secondary metabolism in Streptomyces. Here we reported that StgR, a typical LTTR in Streptomyces coelicolor, was a negative regulator of undecylprodigiosin (Red) and γ-actinorhodin (Act) production...

Photorhabdus is a genus of Gram-negative entomopathogenic bacteria that also maintain a mutualistic association with nematodes from the family Heterorhabditis. Photorhabdus has an extensive secondary metabolism that is required for the interaction between the bacteria and the nematode. A major component of this secondary metabolism is a stilbene molecule, called ST. The first step in ST biosynt...

Phenylpropanoids comprise an important class of plant secondary metabolites. A number of transcription factors have been used to upregulate-specific branches of phenylpropanoid metabolism, but by far the most effective has been the fruit-specific expression of AtMYB12 in tomato, which resulted in as much as 10% of fruit dry weight accumulating as flavonols and hydroxycinnamates. We show that At...