The Chemistry of Fungal Antagonism and Defense

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The focus of this research will be to test extracts from solid-substrate fermentation cultures for antifungal activity against Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium verticillioides and an agriculturally important insect, Spodoptera frugiperda. Metabolites will be isolated by chromatographic methods, identified using spectroscopic techniques and tested for biological activity using established protocols. Results from the project will help to determine whether ecological rationale can be a useful guide to the discovery of new and potentially useful bioactive natural products.With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program is supporting the research of Dr. James B. Gloer of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iowa. Along with his collaborators, Drs. Patrick F. Dowd and Donald T. Wicklow, both of the United States Department of Agriculture, Professor Gloer will focus his research on the chemical study of mycoparasitic/fungicolous fungi that attack and colonize important long-lived physiological structures by other fungi in nature. The central hypothesis of the project is that invasion by fungal colonists frequently involves antibiosis toward the host, and therefore, such colonists may be valuable, underexplored sources of antifungal agents. The work has broader impacts in the teaching of both undergraduate and graduate students and for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.