Environmental fungi target thiol homeostasis to compete with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterial species in nature are found in abundance in sphagnum peat bogs where they compete for nutrients with a variety of microorganisms including fungi. We screened a collection of fungi isolated from sphagnum bogs by co-culture with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to look for inducible expression of antitubercular agents and identified 5 fungi that produced cidal antitubercular agents upon exposure to live Mtb. Whole genome sequencing of these fungi followed by fungal RNAseq after Mtb exposure allowed us to identify biosynthetic gene clusters induced by co-culture. Three of these fungi induced expression of patulin, one induced citrinin expression and one induced the production of nidulalin A. The biosynthetic gene clusters for patulin and citrinin have been previously described b

SUBMITTER: Malhotra N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11614215 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature