Hydrophilic metabolites produced by Penicillium solitum from Antartica

Our most recent article reports the results of a long-term screening which was developed during several years of method optimization, producing pre-fractionated extracts, obtaining bioassay results, selecting strains for isolation work and finally obtaining results. The achievements have been published in the 2020 January issue of the Journal of Natural Products, titled “Water-Soluble Glutamic Acid Derivatives Produced in Culture by Penicillium solitum IS1-A from King George Island, Maritime Antarctica“. Six new tryptophan-glutamic acid derivatives have been isolated and identified from the aqueous extract of the fungus growth medium. Our approach in using a mixture of XAD-2, XAD-4 and XAD-7 proved effective in capturing the compounds from the aqueous medium. The resins fraction was subsequently fractionated by C18 reversed-phase chromatography in order to obtain cleaner fractions suitable for HPLC-UV-MS analysis and bioassay testing. The metabolites have been isolated using different stationary phases, such as Sephadex LH20, Sephadex G-15, phenyl-derivatized SiOH, C8 derivatized SiOH (HPLC), C18 derivatized SiOH (HPLC). The majority of the compounds showed some fluorescence that hampered the bioassays evaluation. Read the full article here.

The photo of the graphical abstract has been taken by Dr. Lara Durães Sette, Professor at the Biosciences Institute of Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho, at Rio Claro campus, during an expedition to the Antarctic Continent. It doesn’t look a photo, isn’t it? But, yes, it is a photo. Additional amazing photographs have been taken by her.

Other water-soluble metabolites produced by Penicillium solitum and by additional microbial strains will be soon reported by our group. Stay tuned!