Classical and epigenetic approaches to metabolite diversification in filamentous fungi

Abstract

Studies on fungal metabolites have produced an overwhelming expectation concerning the production of novel bioactive compounds for pharmaceutical applications. The adding of various biosynthetic precursors and the changing of nutritional components in the fermentation medium can change biosynthesis pathways, also leading to the production of novel metabolites. In addition, several growing conditions can be classically manipulated to modify fungal metabolite profiles. Recently, modern genome sequence tools have shown that not all gene clusters are regularly expressed in conventional growing conditions, thus expanding the possibilities of modulating the chemical metabolite profiles produced by filamentous fungi. This review discusses and exemplifies classical and epigenetic tools successfully applied to diversify metabolite production and to produce fungal metabolites from silent metabolic pathways.