All Outputs (16)

MIBiG 4.0: Advancing biosynthetic gene cluster curation through global collaboration (2024)
Journal Article

Specialized or secondary metabolites are small molecules of biological origin, often showing potent biological activities with applications in agriculture, engineering and medicine. Usually, the biosynthesis of these natural products is governed by s... Read More about MIBiG 4.0: Advancing biosynthetic gene cluster curation through global collaboration.

Unlocking fungal secrets: The biosynthesis and potential of the maleidrides (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Fungi are renowned as producers of high-value natural products, exemplified by the antibiotic cephalosporins, the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (cholesterol-lowering) statins and the antifungal strobilurin derivatives. Together, these compounds have a... Read More about Unlocking fungal secrets: The biosynthesis and potential of the maleidrides.

Maleidride biosynthesis - construction of dimeric anhydrides - more than just heads or tails (2022)
Journal Article

Covering: up to early 2022 Maleidrides are a family of polyketide-based dimeric natural products isolated from fungi. Many maleidrides possess significant bioactivities, making them attractive pharmaceutical or agrochemical lead compounds. Their unus... Read More about Maleidride biosynthesis - construction of dimeric anhydrides - more than just heads or tails.

Cloning and expression of Burkholderia polyyne biosynthetic gene clusters in Paraburkholderia hosts provides a strategy for biopesticide development (2022)
Journal Article

Burkholderia have potential as biocontrol agents because they encode diverse biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for a range of antimicrobial metabolites. Given the opportunistic pathogenicity associated with Burkholderia species, heterologous BGC expr... Read More about Cloning and expression of Burkholderia polyyne biosynthetic gene clusters in Paraburkholderia hosts provides a strategy for biopesticide development.

In silico analyses of maleidride biosynthetic gene clusters (2022)
Journal Article

Maleidrides are a family of structurally related fungal natural products, many of which possess diverse, potent bioactivities. Previous identification of several maleidride biosynthetic gene clusters, and subsequent experimental work, has determined... Read More about In silico analyses of maleidride biosynthetic gene clusters.

Core steps to the Azaphilone family of fungal natural products (2021)
Journal Article

Azaphilones are a family of polyketide-based fungal natural products that exhibit interesting and useful bioactivities. This minireview explores the literature on various characterised azaphilone biosynthetic pathways, which allows for a proposed con... Read More about Core steps to the Azaphilone family of fungal natural products.

Cleaning the cellular factory: Deletion of McrA in Aspergillus oryzae NSAR1 and the generation of a novel kojic acid deficient strain for cleaner heterologous production of secondary metabolites (2021)
Journal Article

The use of filamentous fungi as cellular factories, where natural product pathways can be refactored and expressed in a host strain, continues to aid the field of natural product discovery. Much work has been done to develop host strains which are ge... Read More about Cleaning the cellular factory: Deletion of McrA in Aspergillus oryzae NSAR1 and the generation of a novel kojic acid deficient strain for cleaner heterologous production of secondary metabolites.

The biogenetic origin of the biologically active Naematolin of Hypholoma species involves an unusual sesquiterpene synthase (2019)
Journal Article

Naematolin is a biologically active sesquiterpene produced by Hypholoma species. Low titres and complex structure constrain the exploitation of this secondary metabolite. Here, we de novo sequenced the H. fasciculare genome to identify a candidate bi... Read More about The biogenetic origin of the biologically active Naematolin of Hypholoma species involves an unusual sesquiterpene synthase.

Molecular basis of methylation and chain-length programming in a fungal iterative highly reducing polyketide synthase (2019)
Journal Article

Exchange of 32 different sub-fragments of the C-methyltransferase (C-MeT), pseudo-ketoreductase (ΨKR) and ketoreductase (KR) catalytic domains of the tenellin iterative Type I polyketide synthase non ribosomal peptide synthetase (PKS-NRPS) TENS by ho... Read More about Molecular basis of methylation and chain-length programming in a fungal iterative highly reducing polyketide synthase.

Genome sequence of Lecanicillium fungicola 150-1, the causal agent of dry bubble disease (2019)
Journal Article

The fungus Lecanicillium fungicola causes dry bubble disease in the white button mushroom Agaricus bisporus. Control strategies are limited, as both the host and pathogen are fungi, and there is limited understanding of the interactions in this patho... Read More about Genome sequence of Lecanicillium fungicola 150-1, the causal agent of dry bubble disease.

Cladobotric acids: Metabolites from cultures of Cladobotryum sp., Semisynthetic analogues and antibacterial activity (2019)
Journal Article

Three new polyketide-derived natural products, cladobotric acids G-I (1-3), and six known metabolites (4, 5, 8-11) were isolated from fermentation of the fungus Cladobotryum sp. grown on rice. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscop... Read More about Cladobotric acids: Metabolites from cultures of Cladobotryum sp., Semisynthetic analogues and antibacterial activity.

Characterisation of the biosynthetic pathway to agnestins A and B reveals the reductive route to chrysophanol in fungi (2018)
Journal Article

Two new dihydroxy-xanthone metabolites, agnestins A and B, were isolated from Paecilomyces variotii along with a number of related benzophenones and xanthones including monodictyphenone. The structures were elucidated by NMR analyses and X-ray crysta... Read More about Characterisation of the biosynthetic pathway to agnestins A and B reveals the reductive route to chrysophanol in fungi.

Genetic and chemical characterisation of the cornexistin pathway provides further insight into maleidride biosynthesis (2017)
Journal Article

The biosynthesis of the herbicide cornexistin in the fungus Paecilomyces variotii was investigated by full sequencing of its genome, knockout of key genes within its biosynthetic gene cluster and isolation and identification of intermediate compounds... Read More about Genetic and chemical characterisation of the cornexistin pathway provides further insight into maleidride biosynthesis.

Heterologous production of fungal maleidrides reveals the cryptic cyclization involved in their biosynthesis (2016)
Journal Article

Fungal maleidrides are an important family of bioactive secondary metabolites that consist of 7, 8, or 9-membered carbocycles with one or two fused maleic anhydride moieties. The biosynthesis of byssochlamic acid (a nonadride) and agnestadride A (a h... Read More about Heterologous production of fungal maleidrides reveals the cryptic cyclization involved in their biosynthesis.

Novel nonadride, heptadride and maleic acid metabolites from the byssochlamic acid producer Byssochlamys fulva IMI 40021-an insight into the biosynthesis of maleidrides (2015)
Journal Article

The filamentous fungus Byssochlamys fulva strain IMI 40021 produces (+)-byssochlamic acid 1, its novel dihydroanalogue 2 and four related secondary metabolites. Agnestadrides A, 17 and B, 18 constitute a novel class of seven-membered ring, maleic anh... Read More about Novel nonadride, heptadride and maleic acid metabolites from the byssochlamic acid producer Byssochlamys fulva IMI 40021-an insight into the biosynthesis of maleidrides.

The use of yellow fluorescent hybrids to indicate mating in Trypanosoma brucei (2008)
Journal Article

Background. Trypanosoma brucei undergoes genetic exchange in its insect vector, the tsetse fly, by an unknown mechanism. The difficulties of working with this experimental system of genetic exchange have hampered investigation, particularly because t... Read More about The use of yellow fluorescent hybrids to indicate mating in Trypanosoma brucei.