Fungi from the extremes of life: an untapped treasure for bioactive compounds.
Apr,
2020
More than 80% of the Earth surface is consisted of hostile and harsh environments, classified as extreme from an anthropogenic perspective. Microorganisms with acclimatized nature dominate these extreme ecosystems of the biosphere. Survivals in such environments initiate an inductive force leading to the production of noteworthy metabolites having peculiar biochemistry. Recent investigations on extremophilic fungi for unprecedented bioactive compounds emphasize their remarkable potential as sources of new therapeutics. The present review covers the literature published in the last 15 years and highlights the biological activities and structure of compounds isolated from the extremophilic fungi. The compounds are grouped based on their biological functions such as cytotoxicity, lipid-lowering ability, and antimicrobial, antioxidant, nematocidal, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial, and antifouling activities. A total of 155 compounds isolated from 25 Penicillium species, 16 Aspergillus species, and 23 other species are presented, which include 105 new and 50 known bioactive compounds. Out of these, 77 have known cytotoxic activity and 46 are antimicrobial in nature, while there are 32 other compounds with different activities including nematocidal, anti-allergic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. KEY POINTS: • A broad compilation of bioactive compounds from extremophilic fungi. • Classification of bioactive compounds based on their biological functions. • Production of cytotoxic compounds is common among all kind of extremophilic fungi. • Bioactive compounds have no direct role in adaptation process of extremophiles. leer más
Applied microbiology and biotechnology
Genetic regulation of diapause and associated traits in Chilo partellus (Swinhoe).
02,
2020
Diapause is an endocrine controlled arrested metabolic state to delay development or reproduction under unfavorable conditions. To gain an understanding of importance of diapause for ecological adaptation, it is important to study regulation of diapause in insects. We examined genetics of diapause in Chilo partellus by crossing the hibernating (HD), aestivating (AD), post-hibernating (PHD), post-aestivating (PAD), and nondiapause (ND) strains. Reciprocal crosses were also made to gain full understanding of diapause regulation and the maternal effects, if any. Data were recorded on fecundity, egg hatching, larval survival, diapause induction and termination, adult emergence, and morphometrics of larvae, pupae and adults in the parents (P, P), F hybrids, and the reciprocal crosses. Genetic analysis showed that AD strain is general combiner, which also improved egg hatching, larval survival, diapause termination, adult emergence and proportion of females in the progenies. Incidence of diapause was highest in HD × AD, whereas termination was greatest in PHD × AD. However, ND strain and its reciprocal crosses with other strains did not exhibit any noticeable developmental response associated with diapause. Specific combining ability analysis suggested that where PHD and AD strains exist together there will be likely reduction in diapause incidence, increased survival with greater fitness and faster multiplication of their progenies resulting in outbreak of C. partellus. Degree of dominance estimates revealed that diapause, developmental and morphometric traits in C. partellus are governed by over dominance gene effects, and mainly depend on parental diapause history. leer más
Scientific reports
