MycoRant

A four million dollar, five-year research program (Mining the Aspergillus Nidulans Secondary Metabolome) headed by Berl Oakley of the University of Kansas has yielded data on the medically useful properties of  the fungal secondary metabolites lovastatin and terrequinone (can’t find any readable info on it).  Oakley began the project at Ohio State University but started actual research at Kansas last year (2008). Lovastatin inhibits cholesterol production, and terrequinone has anti-tumor activity.

Although fungi produce secondary metabolites in response to environmental queues, Oakley’s team has found a way to elicit a metabolic response in the laboratory by activating certain genes. They discovered that the production of some secondary metabolites is regulated at the chromatin level, and that metabolites can be produced that normally would not appear in lab culture.

The information in this post was compiled from the following resources:

KU Researcher Finds Fungi Compounds Have Potential as Treatment for Diseases

Fungi Found to Destroy Dividing Cancer Cells

Tags: cancer, secondary metabolites