Butyrolactone I Quantification from Lovastatin Producing Aspergillus terreus Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry-Evidence of Signalling Functions

Aspergillus terreus is an industrially important filamentous fungus producing a wide spectrum of secondary metabolites, including lovastatin and itaconic acid. It also produces butyrolactone I which has shown potential as an antitumour agent. Additionally, butyrolactone I has been implicated to have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microorganisms (Basel) 2014-06, Vol.2 (2), p.111-127
Main Authors: Palonen, Elina K, Neffling, Milla-Riina, Raina, Sheetal, Brandt, Annika, Keshavarz, Tajalli, Meriluoto, Jussi, Soini, Juhani
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspergillus terreus
butyrolactone I
HPLC
LC-ESI-MS-MS
Liquid chromatography
Mass spectrometry
Metabolites
quorum sensing
secondary metabolism
Secondary metabolites
signalling
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Summary:Aspergillus terreus is an industrially important filamentous fungus producing a wide spectrum of secondary metabolites, including lovastatin and itaconic acid. It also produces butyrolactone I which has shown potential as an antitumour agent. Additionally, butyrolactone I has been implicated to have a regulating role in the secondary metabolism and morphology of A. terreus. In this study, a quantitative time-course liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS) analysis of butyrolactone I is reported for the first time in nine-day long submerged cultures of A. terreus. Butyrolactone I was fragmented in the mass analysis producing a reproducible fragmentation pattern of four main daughter ions (m/z 307, 331, 363 and 393) in all the samples tested. Supplementing the cultures with 100 nM butyrolactone I caused a statistically significant increase (up to two-fold) in its production, regardless of the growth stage but was constitutive when butyrolactone I was added at high cell density during the stationary phase. Furthermore, the extracellular butyrolactone I concentration peaked at 48 h post inoculation, showing a similar profile as has been reported for bacterial quorum sensing molecules. Taken together, the results support the idea of butyrolactone I as a quorum sensing molecule in A. terreus.
ISSN:2076-2607
2076-2607
DOI:10.3390/microorganisms2020111