Publication Date:
2020-03-20
Description:
Nematode-trapping fungi are natural antagonists of nematodes. These predatory fungi are capable of switching their lifestyle from a saprophytic to predatory stage in the presence of nematodes by developing specialized trapping devices to capture and consume nematodes. The biochemical mechanisms of such predator–prey interaction have become increasingly studied given the potential application of nematode-trapping fungi as biocontrol agents, but the involved fungal metabolites remain underexplored. Here, we report a comprehensive liquid–chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS) metabolomics study on one hundred wild isolates of nematode-trapping fungi in three different species, Arthrobotrys oligospora, Arthrobotrys thaumasia, and Arthrobotrys musiformis. Molecular networking analysis revealed that the fungi were capable of producing thousands of metabolites, and such chemical diversity of metabolites was notably increased as the fungi switched lifestyle to the predatory stage. Structural annotations by tandem mass spectrometry revealed that those fungal metabolites belonged to various structural families, such as peptide, siderophore, fatty alcohol, and fatty acid amide, and their production exhibited species specificity. Several small peptides (
Electronic ISSN:
2218-1989
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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