Orchestrated Biosynthesis of the Secondary Metabolite Cocktails Enables the Producing Fungus to Combat Diverse Bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Fungal secondary metabolites with antibiotic activities can promote fungal adaptation to diverse environments. Besides the global regulator, individual biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) usually contain a pathway-specific transcription factor for the tight regulation of fungal secondary metabolism. Here, we report the chemical biology mediated by a supercluster containing three BGCs in the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii. These clusters are jointly controlled by an embedded transcription factor that orchestrates the collective production of four classes of chemicals: ustilaginoidin, indigotide, pseurotin, and hydroxyl-ovalicin. The ustilaginoidin BGC is implicated as a late-acquired cluster in Metarhizium to produce both the bis-naphtho-γ-pyrones and the monomeric napht

SUBMITTER: Sun Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9600275 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature