Natural products in the predatory defence of the filamentous fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

• Jana M. Boysen,
• Nauman Saeed and
• Falk Hillmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1814–1827, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.124

• number of approaches have been exploited so far, including co-cultivation with other species [9]. Amoebae offer promising possibilities to not only discover new SM but also to discover their ecological role as amoeba often cohabitate with fungi in their natural environments, especially the soil. Some

• sequencing projects. Due to its clinical importance as an opportunistic pathogen A. fumigatus is of great interest among them [33][34]. As a saprophytic decomposer of organic material in the soil, A. fumigatus encounters not only numerous competitors but also fungivorous predators like amoebae (e.g., P

• trypacidin mediates in necrosis-mediated death [107]. In another study, absence of trypacidin was shown to be linked with increased phagocytic rates in murine alveolar macrophages and phagocytic amoeba D. discoideum. The authors further showed that trypacidin reduced the viability of amoebae which signifies

Emission and biosynthesis of volatile terpenoids from the plasmodial slime mold Physarum polycephalum

• Xinlu Chen,
• Tobias G. Köllner,
• Wangdan Xiong,
• Guo Wei and
• Feng Chen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2872–2880, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.281

• synthases (TPSs) are pivotal enzymes for the production of diverse terpenes, including monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and diterpenes. In our recent studies, dictyostelid social amoebae, also known as cellular slime molds, were found to contain TPS genes for making volatile terpenes. For comparison, here we

• relatedness to bacterial TPSs. The biological role of the volatile terpenoids produced by the plasmodia of P. polycephalum is discussed. Keywords: amoebae; evolution; terpene synthases; volatiles; Introduction Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are used by many living organisms as chemical languages for

• (TPSs) catalyze the conversion of prenyl diphosphates to diverse terpenes [13]. Because all living organisms produce prenyl diphosphates, whether an organism has the ability to produce terpenes depends on whether it contains TPS genes. Recently we could show that dictyostelid social amoebae contain TPS

Versatile synthesis of the signaling peptide glorin

• Robert Barnett,
• Daniel Raszkowski,
• Thomas Winckler and
• Pierre Stallforth

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 247–250, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.27

• as well as in the design of chemical probes to dissect glorin-mediated signaling pathways. Keywords: Dictyostelium; glorin; multicellularity; Polysphondylium; signaling molecules; social amoebae; Introduction The emergence of multicellularity from unicellular ancestors is considered a major

• evolutionary transition [1]. This transition has occurred not only once, in fact more than 25 independent instances of this event are known. The resulting increase in biological complexity requires fine-tuned differentiation and cell–cell communication mechanisms. The social amoebae are exquisite organisms to

• study the emergence of multicellularity since they can exist in both a unicellular and a multicellular stage with a well-orchestrated developmental cycle linking the two [2]. The unicellular amoebae feed on bacteria and divide by binary fission. Upon depletion of their food source, they aggregate to

A detailed view on 1,8-cineol biosynthesis by Streptomyces clavuligerus

• Jan Rinkel,
• Patrick Rabe,
• Laura zur Horst and
• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 2317–2324, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.225

• complexity is reached within the largest, the terpenoids. An estimated number of 75,000 different compounds are known from all kinds of organisms including plants [1], bacteria [2][3][4][5], fungi [6] and, as recently shown, even social amoebae [7]. These molecules are all made from only a handful of linear