PD Dr. Uwe Horn/ Prof. Dr. Dirk Hoffmeister
Natural products from an unidentified homobasidiomycete which control wood- deteriorating microorganisms

Abstract:
An unusual homobasidiomycete (“BY”) isolated from aspen has so far defied any attempts to identify the genus, based on both morphological features and on DNA-sequencing of ITS/IGS-regions. This fungus was only found once, any attempts to re-locate BY failed. The BY fungus exerts a strong negative intermicrobial communication, as wood, colonized by BY, is dramatically less susceptible to growth of blue-stain fungi and other microbes which impact upon the quality of the wood and, eventually, the market value of the wood products.
We expect identification of a new antifungal principle and its cellular target by which the inhibitory interaction occurs. As the BY fungus does not seem to fall into any of the known orders of the homobasidiomycetes, odds are in our favor to identify structurally new and unusual natural product scaffolds and mechanisms of chemical interaction. The project also includes a galenic aspect keeping in mind a potential use of the antifungal compound(s) as a protectant and biocontrol agent for silvicultural applications to inhibit microbial growth. Also, we will have explored the pharmaceutical relevance of the antifungal principle. Further, the characterization of the secondary metabolome may help describe the species chemotaxonomically and, potentially, establish a new family of homobasidiomycetes.

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