AUTHOR=Serrano Rachel , González-Menéndez Víctor , Rodríguez Lorena , Martín Jesús , Tormo José R. , Genilloud Olga 

TITLE=Co-culturing of Fungal Strains Against Botrytis cinerea as a Model for the Induction of Chemical Diversity and Therapeutic Agents

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00649

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.00649

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>New fungal SMs (SMs) have been successfully described to be produced by means of <italic>in vitro</italic>-simulated microbial community interactions. Co-culturing of fungi has proved to be an efficient way to induce cell–cell interactions that can promote the activation of cryptic pathways, frequently silent when the strains are grown in laboratory conditions. Filamentous fungi represent one of the most diverse microbial groups known to produce bioactive natural products. Triggering the production of novel antifungal compounds in fungi could respond to the current needs to fight health compromising pathogens and provide new therapeutic solutions. In this study, we have selected the fungus <italic>Botrytis cinerea</italic> as a model to establish microbial interactions with a large set of fungal strains related to ecosystems where they can coexist with this phytopathogen, and to generate a collection of extracts, obtained from their antagonic microbial interactions and potentially containing new bioactive compounds. The antifungal specificity of the extracts containing compounds induced after <italic>B. cinerea</italic> interaction was determined against two human fungal pathogens (<italic>Candida albicans</italic> and <italic>Aspergillus fumigatus</italic>) and three phytopathogens (<italic>Colletotrichum acutatum</italic>, <italic>Fusarium proliferatum</italic>, and <italic>Magnaporthe grisea</italic>). In addition, their cytotoxicity was also evaluated against the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2). We have identified by LC-MS the production of a wide variety of known compounds induced from these fungal interactions, as well as novel molecules that support the potential of this approach to generate new chemical diversity and possible new therapeutic agents.</p>