Andrés Mauricio Caraballo-Rodríguez

Endophytic Actinobacteria from the Brazilian Medicinal Plant Lychnophora ericoides Mart. and the Biological Potential of Their Secondary Metabolites

Endophytic actinobacteria from the Brazilian medicinal plant Lychnophora ericoides were isolated for the first time, and the biological potential of their secondary metabolites was evaluated. A phylogenic analysis of isolated actinobacteria was accomplished with 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the predominance of the genus Streptomyces was observed. All strains were cultured on solid rice medium, and ethanol extracts were evaluated with antimicrobial and cytotoxic assays against cancer cell lines. As a result, 92% of the extracts showed a high or moderate activity against at least one pathogenic microbial strain or cancer cell line. Based on the biological and chemical analyses of crude extracts, three endophytic strains were selected for further investigation of their chemical profiles. Sixteen compounds were isolated, and 3‐hydroxy‐4‐methoxybenzamide (9) and 2,3‐dihydro‐2,2‐dimethyl‐4(1H)‐quinazolinone (15) are reported as natural products for the first time in this study. The biological activity of the pure compounds was also assessed. Compound 15 displayed potent cytotoxic activity against all four tested cancer cell lines. Nocardamine (2) was only moderately active against two cancer cell lines but showed strong activity against Trypanosoma cruzi. Our results show that endophytic actinobacteria from L. ericoides are a promising source of bioactive compounds.

Molecular inter-kingdom interactions of endophytes isolated from Lychnophora ericoides

The importance of microbial natural products has been widely demonstrated in the search for new antibiotics. However, the functional role of microbial metabolites in nature remains to be deciphered. Several natural products are known to mediate microbial interactions through metabolic exchange. One approach to investigate metabolic exchange in the laboratory is through microbial interactions. Here, we describe the chemical study of selected endophytes isolated from the Brazilian medicinal plant Lychnophora ericoides by pairwise inter-kingdom interactions in order to correlate the impact of co-cultivation to their metabolic profiles. Combining mass spectrometry tools and NMR analyses, a total of 29 compounds were identified. These compounds are members of polyene macrocycles, pyrroloindole alkaloids, angucyclines, and leupeptins chemical families. Two of the identified compounds correspond to a new fungal metabolite (29) and a new actinobacterial angucycline-derivative (23). Our results revealed a substantial arsenal of small molecules induced by microbial interactions, as we begin to unravel the complexity of microbial interactions associated with endophytic systems.

Endophytic Fungi as a Source of Novel Metabolites

Microorganisms inhabiting plant tissues without causing any damage to their host plant are referred to as endophytes and can be fungi or bacteria, including actinobacteria. Due to a direct interaction between plant and endophytes, these microorganisms are an interesting source for biologically active natural products. Here, we reviewed the novel compounds isolated from endophytic fungi from 2012 to April 2014, mentioning their biological activities as well as their biological sources. Only secondary metabolites containing any interesting structural novelty or relevant biological activity were highlighted. The novel metabolites were classified into four major groups based on their biosynthetic pathway, such as polyketide and fatty acid, phenylpropanoid, and terpenoid derivatives as well as N-containing compounds. Taking into account that laboratorial conditions may lead to a minimal or absent production of many interesting microbial metabolites produced by the endophytes while interacting in their natural habitat, some approaches have been applied to the endophytes cultures and some examples of new metabolites obtained by using those strategies are also mentioned.

Propagating annotations of molecular networks using in silico fragmentation

The annotation of small molecules is one of the most challenging and important steps in untargeted mass spectrometry analysis, as most of our biological interpretations rely on structural annotations. Molecular networking has emerged as a structured way to organize and mine data from untargeted tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) experiments and has been widely applied to propagate annotations. However, propagation is done through manual inspection of MS/MS spectra connected in the spectral networks and is only possible when a reference library spectrum is available. One of the alternative approaches used to annotate an unknown fragmentation mass spectrum is through the use of in silico predictions. One of the challenges of in silico annotation is the uncertainty around the correct structure among the predicted candidate lists. Here we show how molecular networking can be used to improve the accuracy of in silico predictions through propagation of structural annotations, even when there is no match to a MS/MS spectrum in spectral libraries. This is accomplished through creating a network consensus of re-ranked structural candidates using the molecular network topology and structural similarity to improve in silico annotations. The Network Annotation Propagation (NAP) tool is accessible through the GNPS web-platform https://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/static/gnps-theoretical.jsp.

Amphotericin B as an inducer of griseofulvin-containing guttate in the endophytic fungus Xylaria cubensis FLe9

Microorganisms interact with each other via metabolic exchange. Several studies have revealed that microbial metabolites may act as mediators of microbial interactions. During our previous work with endophytes isolated from the Brazilian medicinal plant Lychnophora ericoides, we demonstrated that the well-known antifungal compound amphotericin B, produced by the endophytic actinobacterium Streptomyces albospinus RLe7, may trigger chemical responses in endophytic fungi. In this study, we cultured endophytic fungi in amphotericin B-enriched media to verify whether other chemical responses could be induced. Interestingly, one fungal strain showed a differential response under the tested conditions. When the fungus Xylaria cubensis FLe9 was cultured in amphotericin B-enriched media, a mycelial guttate was observed. Investigation of the fungal extracts from X. cubensis FLe9 and purification of fungal metabolites were performed using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a diode array detector. Isolated compounds were characterized on the basis of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry data. Therefore, we report on the overproduction of the fungal metabolites griseofulvin (1) and dechlorogriseofulvin (2) when the endophytic fungus Xylaria cubensis FLe9 was exposed to amphotericin B. Both fungal compounds 1 and 2 were also detected in the mycelial guttate produced when X. cubensis FLe9 was exposed to amphotericin B. Since the amphotericin B-producing actinobacterium S. albospinus RLe7 and the griseofulvin-producing fungus X. cubensis FLe9 are endophytes from the same host, biosynthetic induction of fungal compounds may suggest a potential signaling role for amphotericin B in natural environments. However, this hypothesis needs to be further investigated in field experiments.