De Novo Production of Metabolites by Fungal Co-culture of Trichophyton rubrum and Bionectria ochroleuca

The co-cultivation of fungi has recently been described as a promising strategy to induce the production of novel metabolites through possible gene activation. A large screening of fungal co-cultures in solid media has identified an unusual long-distance growth inhibition between Trichophyton rubrum and Bionectria ochroleuca. To study metabolite induction in this particular fungal interaction, differential LC-MS-based metabolomics was performed on pure strain cultures and on their co-cultures. The comparison of the resulting fingerprints highlighted five de novo induced compounds, which were purified using software-oriented semipreparative HPLC-MS. One metabolite was successfully identified as 4″-hydroxysulfoxy-2,2″-dimethylthielavin P (a substituted trimer of 3,5-dimethylorsellinic acid). The nonsulfated form, as well as three other related compounds, were found in the pure strain culture of B. ochroleuca.