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The World of Microfungi
Microfungi in Nature
Microfungi are present throughout the entire biosphere. In nature microfungi serve many different purposes; one of the most important is the decomposition of organic matter hereby providing nutrients for plants to grow. They play an important part of our everyday lives - often we just don't notice. Some microfungi are harmful: They affect our indoor climate and cause allergies; they destroy crops or cause infections in humans. Some microfungi are beneficial, they are used in the production of cheese and sausages, they prevent famine by attacking locusts and - very importantly - some microfungi produces compounds used as lifesaving drugs today. The latter being the reason why we work with microfungi in MycoTeQ.
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Pharmaceuticals
The most well known pharmaceutical that originates from microfungi is penicillin (discovered in Penicillum notatum), but many other lifesaving drugs were also originally isolated from microfungi. Statins, a very important group of cholesterol lowering drugs was originally found in cultures of penicillium species. Cyclosporin (Tolysporium notatum) is used to suppress the immune system after organ transplant operations. Also mycophenolic acid is used as an immunosuppressor - this compound was originally isolated from the microfungi penicillium stoloniferum. A range of other important drugs were also originally discovered in the microfungal world.
Filamentous Fungi
MycoTeQ
works mainly with microfungi of the genera Penicillium, Aspergillus and Fusarium. They are all filamentous fungi belonging to the division called ascomycota. Filamentous fungi grow as multicellular (the organism is made up of several cells) networks of filament shaped cells, so called hyphae. Each cell contains a number of nuclei.
Polyketides
When the fungal cell experiences stress a number of genes are turned on and the cell starts the production of a number of complex compounds - often referred to as secondary metabolites. Factors that can cause stress in a fungal cell includes lack of nutrients in the surrounding medium, high or low pH, temperature or salt concentration or competition from other microbes (bacteria, fungi) or viral infections. Many secondary metabolites are produced by a system that resembles the synthesis of fatty acids. Compounds produced by these systems are usually called polyketides. This is a very diverse group of compounds usually exhibiting biologic activity - hence many of them are extremely interesting for the pharmaceutical industry. Polyketides are the main focus area of MycoTeQ discovery activities.
