The Chemistry of Fungal Antagonism and Defense

这项研究的重点将是测试固体底物发酵培养物对黄曲霉、黄萎病和一种农业上重要的昆虫--果蝇的抗真菌活性。代谢物将通过层析方法分离，使用光谱技术进行鉴定，并使用既定的方案进行生物活性测试。该项目的结果将有助于确定生态学原理是否可以成为发现新的和潜在有用的生物活性天然产物的有用指南。有了这个奖项，有机和高分子化学计划将支持爱荷华大学化学系的詹姆斯·B·格洛尔博士的研究。与他的合作者、美国农业部的帕特里克·F·道德博士和唐纳德·T·威克洛博士一起，格洛尔教授将把他的研究重点放在真菌寄生/真菌真菌的化学研究上，这些真菌通过自然界中的其他真菌攻击和定居重要的长期生存的生理结构。该项目的中心假设是，真菌殖民者的入侵经常涉及对宿主的抗生素，因此，这样的殖民者可能是有价值的、未被开发的抗真菌药物来源。这项工作对本科生和研究生的教学以及制药和农业行业都有更广泛的影响。

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.