Extrolites of Aspergillus fumigatus and Other Pathogenic Species in Aspergillus Section Fumigati

Abstract

Aspergillus fumigatus is an important opportunistic human pathogen known for its production of a large array of extrolites. Up to 63 species have been described in Aspergillus section Fumigati, some of which have also been reliably reported to be pathogenic, including A. felis, A. fischeri, A. fumigatiaffinis, A. fumisynnematus, A. hiratsukae, A. laciniosus, A. lentulus, A. novofumigatus, A. parafelis, A. pseudofelis, A. pseudoviridinutans, A. spinosus, A. thermomutatus, and A. udagawae. These species share the production of hydrophobins, melanins, and siderophores and ability to grow well at 37°C, but they only share some small molecule extrolites, that could be important factors in pathogenicity. According to the literature gliotoxin and other exometabolites can be contributing factors to pathogenicity, but these exometabolites are apparently not produced by all pathogenic species. It is our hypothesis that species unable to produce some of these metabolites can produce proxy-exometabolites that may serve the same function. We tabulate all exometabolites reported from species in Aspergillus section Fumigati and by comparing the profile of those extrolites, suggest that those producing many different kinds of exometabolites are potential opportunistic pathogens. The exometabolite data also suggest that the profile of exometabolites are highly specific and can be used for identification of these closely related species.

Aspergillus is monophyletic: Evidence from multiple gene phylogenies and extrolites profiles

“…Subgenus Nidulantes is closely related to Circumdati , but even subgenus Fumigati and subgenus Aspergillus have several extrolites or heteroisoextrolites (Frisvad & Larsen 2016) in common. Data listed in Table 1 shows that at least xanthocillins, terphenyllins and emodin are in common within all the subgenera of the genus Aspergillus .…”

A survey of xerophilic Aspergillus from indoor environment, including descriptions of two new section Aspergillus species producing eurotium-like sexual states

“…These quinolone structures with a γ-lactam ring were first characterized from fermentations of an unknown Penicillium species Takahashi et al 2000) and further characterized by Kim et al (2001) in Penicillium citrinum, where they were demonstrated to be acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. Quinolactacins have since been reported from multiple Penicillium species from sections Citrina , Brevicompacta (Frisvad et al 2013;Perrone et al 2015) and Robsamsonia (Houbraken et al 2016); Aspergillus quadricinctus, A. stramenius (section Fumigati) (Frisvad and Larsen 2015b;Samson et al 2007), A. karnatakaensis (section Aenei) (Varga et al 2010); and from the distantly related marine derived Xylariaceae (Nong et al 2014). Based on current knowledge, the echinulins (including echinulin, neoechinulin and isoechinulin) detected in both A. megasporus and A. mallochii seem specific to Aspergillus sections Aspergillus and Restricti (Frisvad and Larsen 2015a).…”

Polyphasic taxonomy ofAspergillussectionCervini

“…The compound is reported here for the first time in A. wisconsinensis in section Cervini . The territrems are related to the heteroisoextrolites pyripyropens from section Fumigati (Frisvad and Larsen, 2015, Frisvad and Larsen, 2016). …”