Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 9:30 AM
S74
Efficient analysis of fungal metabolism and optimization of secondary metabolism using FF MicroPlates
Fungi are well known for their vast diversity of secondary metabolites that include many life-saving drugs and highly toxic mycotoxins. They have unique biochemical pathways to assimilate a vast array of simple and complex substrates, but they have their own preferences. Although morphological and biochemical uniqueness of these organisms are commonly used for their identification, differentiation of closely related cultures requires extensive phenotypic and genomic analyses. The Biolog FF MicroPlates were recently introduced for rapid identification of common filamentous fungi based on their abilities to utilize discrete substrates, and they are also being utilized for other research applications. We used them for substrate utilization, growth, secondary metabolite and antimicrobial profiles of some fungal cultures important to our microbial drug discovery program. Culture growth was monitored by change in absorbance in each well, and the presence of secondary metabolites and their corresponding bioactivities was detected by LCMS analyses and antimicrobial assays of the extracts of each well, respectively. Fingerprints were created with Spotfire™ visualization software, and data were analyzed in various ways. The substrate utilization fingerprints were useful in selecting media components for media optimization of secondary metabolite production for the various cultures. In general, a strong correlation was found among substrate utilization, growth, antimicrobial activity and presence of the responsible secondary metabolites. The method was also used for dereplication of isolated fungi and in the differentiation of closely related variants.
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