Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Xu, Yang
• Vinas, Maria
• Alsarrag, Albatol
• Su, Ling
• Pfohl, Katharina
• Rohlfs, Marko
• Schäfer, Wilhelm
• Chen, Wei
• Karlovsky, Petr

Titel

Bis-naphthopyrone pigments protect filamentous ascomycetes from a wide range of predators

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2019-08, Vol.10 (1), p.3579-12, Article 3579

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• It is thought that fungi protect themselves from predation by the production of compounds that are toxic to soil-dwelling animals. Here, we show that a nontoxic pigment, the bis-naphthopyrone aurofusarin, protects Fusarium fungi from a wide range of animal predators. We find that springtails (primitive hexapods), woodlice (crustaceans), and mealworms (insects) prefer feeding on fungi with disrupted aurofusarin synthesis, and mealworms and springtails are repelled by wheat flour amended with the fungal bis-naphthopyrones aurofusarin, viomellein, or xanthomegnin. Predation stimulates aurofusarin synthesis in several Fusarium species and viomellein synthesis in Aspergillus ochraceus. Aurofusarin displays low toxicity in mealworms, springtails, isopods, Drosophila, and insect cells, contradicting the common view that fungal defence metabolites are toxic. Our results indicate that bis-naphthopyrones are defence compounds that protect filamentous ascomycetes from predators through a mechanism that does not involve toxicity.