Chemical ecology of fungi

Like pants, fungi are immobile. Therefore, fungi are neither able to move to another location to search for nutrition nor to evade attacks from predators by moving away. To secure their survival, fungi have developed a variety of chemical defence and communication strategies which help them to secure their survival in the eco­system. Consequently, fungi are a treasure trove for bioactive secondary metabolites. Often fruiting bodies of fungi are very colourful and contain a variety of pigments. Eye-catching colours might be a means of signalling inedibility and thus a means of deterring fungivores. For instance, in Mycena species pyrroloquinoline alkaloids, such as the mycenarubins, the sanguinones and the pelianthina­rubins, are present. Fungi do not only contain bioactive compounds for constitutive chemical defence but also use inactive precursors which are converted to active compounds only upon injury. For instance, the fruiting bodies of the crust fungus Aleurodiscus amorphus contain aleurodisconitrile which - upon injury - is converted to toxic hydrocyanic acid and aleurodiscoester. Many other species are able to generate HCN from the cyanohydrin of glyoxylic acid. Our recent findings show that some fungi are even able to respond to the presence of (R)-oct-1-en-3-ol, a volatile which is generated upon injury of fungi, by de novo synthesis of defence compounds. These examples demonstrate that the chemical ecology of fungi exhibits a similar diversity and richness as the chemical ecology of plants.