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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #314585
Title: Avellanin C, an inhibitor of quorum-sensing signaling in Staphylococcus aureus, from Hamigera ingelheimensis

Author
item IGARASHI, YASUHIRO - Toyama University
item GOHDA, FUMIYA - Toyama University
item KADOSHIMA, TAITO - Toyama University
item FUKUDA, TAKAO - Toyama University
item HANAFUSA, TOMOAKI - Toyama University
item SHOJIMA, AKANE - Kyushu University
item NAKAYAMA, JIRO - Kyushu University
item BILLS, GERALD - University Of Texas Health Science Center
item Peterson, Stephen

Submitted to: Journal of Antibiotics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/3/2015
Publication Date: 11/1/2015
Citation: Igarashi, Y., Gohda, F., Kadoshima, T., Fukuda, T., Hanafusa, T., Shojima, A., Nakayama, J., Bills, G.F., Peterson, S. 2015. Avellanin C, an inhibitor of quorum-sensing signaling in Staphylococcus aureus, from Hamigera ingelheimensis. Journal of Antibiotics. 68(11):707-710.

Interpretive Summary: Molds produce many types of chemicals that are used to influence the behavior of other microorganisms living close to them. Well known is the case of antibiotics that kill the bacteria that may be competing for food resources in nature. In this case we isolated a protein-like compound avellacin C from the mold Hamigera ingelheimensis that was not previously known. This compound prevents the bacteria Streptococcus aureus (sometimes a serious human pathogen) from performing the co-ordinated colony activity known as “quorum-sensing” that includes film formation. Biofilm formation reduces sensitivity of the bacterium to antibiotics and other environmental stress. This finding will be of interest to academic scientists and pharmaceutical researchers.

Technical Abstract: Hamigera is one of the least studied genera of Eurotiales in terms of secondary metabolism compared with metabolically prolific genera such as Penicillium, Aspergillus, Paecilomyces, Monascus and Talaromyces.1 Although thousands of metabolites are known from Aspergillus and Penicillium,2 only 20–30 compounds have been reported from Hamigera.3 In our previous assessment of chemodiversity in representative strains of Hamigera, cyclic peptides known as avellanins and PF1171 were found to be widely produced by a range of this species.4 Meanwhile, one of the studied strains of H. ingelheimensis was observed to be producing an unknown congener, designated avellanin C (1) instead of the known cyclic peptides (Figure 1). In this paper, we describe the isolation and structure determination of 1 along with its quorum-sensing inhibitory activity.