All odorants are volatile organic compounds (VOCs), i.e., low molecular weight compounds that easily evaporate at normal temperatures and pressure. Fungal VOCs are relatively understudied compared to ...VOCs of bacterial, plant, or synthetic origin. Much of the research to date on fungal VOCs has focused on their food and flavor properties, their use as indirect indicators of fungal growth in agriculture, or their role as semiochemicals for insects. In addition, research into fungal volatiles has also taken place to monitor spoilage, for purposes of chemotaxonomy, for use in biofilters and for biodiesel, to detect plant and animal disease, for “mycofumigation,” and with respect to plant health. As methods for the analysis of gas phase molecules have improved, it has become apparent that fungal VOC are more chemically varied and more biologically active than has generally been realized. In particular, there is increasing data that show that fungal VOCs frequently mediate interactions between organisms within and across different ecological niches. The goal of this mini review is to orchestrate data on fungal VOCs obtained from disparate disciplines as well as to draw attention to the ecological importance of fungal VOCs in signaling between different species. Technologies and approaches that are common in one area of research are often unknown in others, and the study of fungal VOCs would benefit from more cross talk between subdisciplines.
Many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with industry cause adverse health effects, but less is known about the physiological effects of biologically produced volatiles. This review focuses ...on the VOCs emitted by fungi, which often have characteristic moldy or "mushroomy" odors. One of the most common fungal VOCs, 1-octen-3-ol, is a semiochemical for many arthropod species and also serves as a developmental hormone for several fungal groups. Other fungal VOCs are flavor components of foods and spirits or are assayed in indirect methods for detecting the presence of mold in stored agricultural produce and water-damaged buildings. Fungal VOCs function as antibiotics as well as defense and plant-growth-promoting agents and have been implicated in a controversial medical condition known as sick building syndrome. In this review, we draw attention to the ubiquity, diversity, and toxicological significance of fungal VOCs as well as some of their ecological roles.
Secreted proteins and metabolites play diverse and critical roles in organismal and organism-environment interactions. Volatile organic compounds (VOC) can travel far from the point of production ...through the atmosphere, porous soils, and liquid, making them ideal info-chemicals for mediating both short- and long-distance intercellular and organismal interactions. Critical ecological roles for animal- and plant-derived VOC in directing animal behaviors and for VOC as a language for plant-to-plant communication and regulators of various physiological processes have been well documented. Similarly, microbial VOC appear to be involved in antagonism, mutualism, intra- and interspecies regulation of cellular and developmental processes, and modification of their surrounding environments. However, the available knowledge of how microbial VOC affect other organisms is very limited. Evidence supporting diverse roles of microbial VOC with the focus on their impact on plant health is reviewed here. Given the vast diversity of microbes in nature and the critical importance of microbial communities associated with plants for their ecology and fitness, systematic exploration of microbial VOC and characterization of their biological functions and ecological roles will likely uncover novel mechanisms for controlling diverse biological processes critical to plant health and will also offer tangible practical benefits in addressing agricultural and environmental problems.
We tested the ability of 14 strains of Trichoderma to emit volatile compounds that decreased or stopped the growth of Phytophthora infestans. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from ...Trichoderma strains designated T41 and T45 inhibited the mycelial growth of P. infestans grown on a laboratory medium by 80 and 81.4%, respectively, and on potato tubers by 93.1 and 94.1%, respectively. Using the DNA sequence analysis of the translation elongation factor region, both Trichoderma strains were identified as Trichoderma atroviride. VOCs emitted by the strains were analyzed, and 39 compounds were identified. The most abundant compounds were 3-methyl-1-butanol, 6-pentyl-2-pyrone, 2-methyl-1-propanol, and acetoin. Electron microscopy of the hyphae treated with T. atroviride VOCs revealed serious morphological and ultrastructural damages, including cell deformation, collapse, and degradation of cytoplasmic organelles. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the ability of Trichoderma VOCs to suppress the growth of the late blight potato pathogen.
Many
species are applied as biofungicides and biofertilizers to agricultural soils to enhance crop growth. These filamentous fungi have the ability to reduce plant diseases and promote plant growth ...and productivity through overlapping modes of action including induced systemic resistance, antibiosis, enhanced nutrient efficiency, and myco-parasitism.
species are prolific producers of many small metabolites with antifungal, antibacterial, and anticancer properties. Volatile metabolites of
also have the ability to induce resistance to plant pathogens leading to improved plant health. In this study,
plants were exposed to mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by growing cultures of
from 20 strains, representing 11 different
species.
We identified nine
strains that produced plant growth promoting VOCs. Exposure to mixtures of VOCs emitted by these strains increased plant biomass (37.1-41.6 %) and chlorophyll content (82.5-89.3 %).
volatile-mediated changes in plant growth were strain- and species-specific. VOCs emitted by
.
(CBS 130756) were associated with the greatest
growth promotion. One strain,
(CBS 01-209), in our screen decreased growth (50.5 %) and chlorophyll production (13.1 %). Similarly, tomatoes exposed to VOCs from
(BBA 70239) showed a significant increase in plant biomass (>99 %), larger plant size, and significant development of lateral roots. We also observed that the tomato plant growths were dependent on the duration of the volatile exposure. A GC-MS analysis of VOCs from
strains identified more than 141 unique compounds including several unknown sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, and tetraterpenes.
Plants grown in the presence of fungal VOCs emitted by different species and strains of
exhibited a range of effects. This study demonstrates that the blend of volatiles produced by actively growing fungi and volatile exposure time in plant development both influence the outcome of volatile-mediated interactions. Only some of our growth promoting strains produced microbial VOCs known to enhance plant growth. Compounds such as 6-pentyl-2
-pyran-2-one were not common to all promoting strains. We found that biostimulatory strains tended to have a larger number of complex terpenes which may explain the variation in growth induced by different
strains.
Many bioactive natural products are produced as “secondary metabolites” by plants, bacteria, and fungi. During the middle of the 20th century, several secondary metabolites from fungi revolutionized ...the pharmaceutical industry, for example, penicillin, lovastatin, and cyclosporine. They are generally biosynthesized by enzymes encoded by clusters of coordinately regulated genes, and several motif-based methods have been developed to detect secondary metabolite biosynthetic (SMB) gene clusters using the sequence information of typical SMB core genes such as polyketide synthases (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS). However, no detection method exists for SMB gene clusters that are functional and do not include core SMB genes at present. To advance the exploration of SMB gene clusters, especially those without known core genes, we developed MIDDAS-M, a m otif- i ndependent d e novo d etection a lgorithm for SM B gene clusters. We integrated virtual gene cluster generation in an annotated genome sequence with highly sensitive scoring of the cooperative transcriptional regulation of cluster member genes. MIDDAS-M accurately predicted 38 SMB gene clusters that have been experimentally confirmed and/or predicted by other motif-based methods in 3 fungal strains. MIDDAS-M further identified a new SMB gene cluster for ustiloxin B, which was experimentally validated. Sequence analysis of the cluster genes indicated a novel mechanism for peptide biosynthesis independent of NRPS. Because it is fully computational and independent of empirical knowledge about SMB core genes, MIDDAS-M allows a large-scale, comprehensive analysis of SMB gene clusters, including those with novel biosynthetic mechanisms that do not contain any functionally characterized genes.
Much of natural product chemistry concerns a group of compounds known as secondary metabolites. These low-molecular-weight metabolites often have potent physiological activities. Digitalis, morphine ...and quinine are plant secondary metabolites, whereas penicillin, cephalosporin, ergotrate and the statins are equally well known fungal secondary metabolites. Although chemically diverse, all secondary metabolites are produced by a few common biosynthetic pathways, often in conjunction with morphological development. Recent advances in molecular biology, bioinformatics and comparative genomics have revealed that the genes encoding specific fungal secondary metabolites are clustered and often located near telomeres. In this review, we address some important questions, including which evolutionary pressures led to gene clustering, why closely related species produce different profiles of secondary metabolites, and whether fungal genomics will accelerate the discovery of new pharmacologically active natural products.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are carbon-compounds that easily evaporate at room temperature. Toxins are biologically produced poisons; mycotoxins are those toxins produced by microscopic fungi. ...All fungi emit blends of VOCs; the qualitative and quantitative composition of these volatile blends varies with the species of fungus and the environmental situation in which the fungus is grown. These fungal VOCs, produced as mixtures of alcohols, aldehydes, acids, ethers, esters, ketones, terpenes, thiols and their derivatives, are responsible for the characteristic moldy odors associated with damp indoor spaces. There is increasing experimental evidence that some of these VOCs have toxic properties. Laboratory tests in mammalian tissue culture and Drosophila melanogaster have shown that many single VOCs, as well as mixtures of VOCs emitted by growing fungi, have toxic effects. This paper describes the pros and cons of categorizing toxigenic fungal VOCs as mycotoxins, uses genomic data to expand on the definition of mycotoxin, and summarizes some of the linguistic and other conventions that can create barriers to communication between the scientists who study VOCs and those who study toxins. We propose that "volatoxin" might be a useful term to describe biogenic volatile compounds with toxigenic properties.
Abstract
Signaling via volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has historically been studied mostly by entomologists; however, botanists and mycologists are increasingly aware of the physiological ...potential of chemical communication in the gas phase. Most research to date focuses on the observed effects of VOCs on different organisms such as differential growth or metabolite production. However, with the increased interest in volatile signaling, more researchers are investigating the molecular mechanisms for these effects. Eight-carbon VOCs are among the most prevalent and best-studied fungal volatiles. Therefore, this review emphasizes examples of eight-carbon VOCs affecting plants and fungi. These compounds display different effects that include growth suppression in both plants and fungi, induction of defensive behaviors such as accumulation of mycotoxins, phytohormone signaling cascades, and the inhibition of spore and seed germination. Application of ‘-omics’ and other next-generation sequencing techniques is poised to decipher the mechanistic basis of volatiles in plant–fungal communication.
Many fungal volatile organic compounds function as signaling cues for interspecific communication. Eight-carbon volatiles from fungi and/or plants generally depress growth and induce defense responses in both types of organisms.
Fungi produce various mixtures of gas-phase, carbon-based compounds called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that due to their small size are able to diffuse through the atmosphere and soils. Despite ...some methodological and technological constraints, researchers have detected and characterized approximately 250 fungal VOCs, many of which have characteristic odors and are produced during primary and secondary metabolism. Fungal VOCs may contribute to a controversial medical diagnosis called “sick building syndrome” and may also be important in the success of some biocontrol species of Trichoderma. VOCs also play important signaling roles for fungi in their natural environments. Many ecological interactions are mediated by VOCs, including those between fungi and plants, arthropods, bacteria, and other fungi. The diverse functions of fungal VOCs can be developed for use in biotechnological applications for biofuel, biocontrol, and mycofumigation. Volatiles represent a new frontier in bioprospecting, and the study of these gas-phase compounds promises the discovery of new products for human exploitation and will generate new hypotheses in fundamental biology.
► Approximately 250 known volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted by fungi. ► The toxicology of fungal VOCs warrants further investigation. ► Many interactions among and between fungi and other organisms are mediated by VOCs. ► Fungal VOCs have untapped potential for biotechnology.
PDF
