Genomic and Metabolomic Analysis of the Endophytic Fungus Fusarium sp. VM-40 Isolated from the Medicinal Plant Vinca minor

Abstract

The genus Fusarium is well-known to comprise many pathogenic fungi that affect cereal crops worldwide, causing severe damage to agriculture and the economy. In this study, an endophytic fungus designated Fusarium sp. VM-40 was isolated from a healthy specimen of the traditional European medicinal plant Vinca minor. Our morphological characterization and phylogenetic analysis reveal that Fusarium sp. VM-40 is closely related to Fusarium paeoniae, belonging to the F. tricinctum species complex (FTSC), the genomic architecture and secondary metabolite profile of which have not been investigated. Thus, we sequenced the whole genome of Fusarium sp. VM-40 with the new Oxford Nanopore R10.4 flowcells. The assembled genome is 40 Mb in size with a GC content of 47.72%, 15 contigs (≥50,000 bp; N 50~4.3 Mb), and 13,546 protein-coding genes, 691 of which are carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme)-encoding genes. We furthermore predicted a total of 56 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) with antiSMASH, 25 of which showed similarity with known BGCs. In addition, we explored the potential of this fungus to produce secondary metabolites through untargeted metabolomics. Our analyses reveal that this fungus produces structurally diverse secondary metabolites of potential pharmacological relevance (alkaloids, peptides, amides, terpenoids, and quinones). We also employed an epigenetic manipulation method to activate cryptic BGCs, which led to an increased abundance of several known compounds and the identification of several putative new compounds. Taken together, this study provides systematic research on the whole genome sequence, biosynthetic potential, and metabolome of the endophytic fungus Fusarium sp. VM-40.

Antimicrobial Action Mechanisms of Natural Compounds Isolated from Endophytic Microorganisms

“…The genome size of the endophyte has been determined as being 40 Mb; the antiSMASH has predicted a total of 56 BGCs, including 25 previously known. Through combined genomic and metabolomic analyses, 30 secondary metabolites have been identified, most of which are enniatins—cyclic hexadepsipeptides generated by condensing three N-methyl-L amino acids and three D-α-hydroxy acids [ 158 ].…”

“…Chloramphenicol (158) and cyclo-(L-tryptophanyl-L-prolyl) (159) have been obtained from Streptomyces sp. SUK 25, isolated from the root of Zingiber spectabile.…”