Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Aspergillus Species
Summary
Species of the genus Aspergillus are prolific producers of structurally diverse secondary metabolites with significant bioactivities. These small molecules, including polyketides, non-ribosomal peptides, terpenoids, alkaloids and butenolides, arise from modular enzymatic assemblies and often incorporate unique biosynthetic features such as prenylation, halogenation and oxidative ring closures. Many of these metabolites exhibit potent antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and enzyme-inhibitory properties, making them valuable leads in drug discovery. Advances in genome mining and metabolomic profiling have uncovered cryptic pathways and enabled the heterologous expression of gene clusters, expanding the chemical space available for functional studies. Marine-derived, endophytic and soil–derived isolates of Aspergillus continue to yield novel scaffolds, while synthetic and semi-synthetic approaches facilitate analogue generation and mode-of-action elucidation. Collectively, research on Aspergillus secondary metabolites addresses urgent global challenges, including antimicrobial resistance, emerging viral threats and chronic inflammatory diseases, and provides versatile platforms for biotechnological and pharmacological innovation.
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Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Aspergillus Species publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in bioactive secondary metabolites from aspergillus species across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Secondary metabolite: A small molecule not directly involved in normal growth but often conferring ecological advantage or bioactivity.
Polyketide: A class of complex natural products assembled by polyketide synthases through iterative condensation of acyl units.
Butenolide: A five-membered lactone ring commonly encountered in fungal metabolites with anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities.
Non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS): A modular enzyme complex that assembles peptides independent of messenger RNA templates.
Inflammasome: A multiprotein complex in immune cells that activates inflammatory caspases and cytokines upon detecting stress signals.
ACE2: Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, a membrane receptor exploited by certain viruses for cell entry and a target for antiviral intervention.
References
- Bioactive Aspergteroids G–J from Soft-Coral-Associated Symbiotic and Epiphytic Fungus Aspergillus terreus EGF7-0-1. Bioengineering (2023).
- Bioactive metabolites identified from Aspergillus terreus derived from soil. AMB Express (2023).
- Natural product diversity from the endophytic fungi of the genus Aspergillus. RSC Advances (2020).
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