Discovery of novel biologically active secondary metabolites from Thai mycodiversity with anti-infective potential

Abstract

This mini-review is dedicated to the summary of results of the EU-funded Project “Golden Mycological Triangle” (acronym GoMyTri), which was carried out in collaboration of three research infrastructures in Germany, the Netherlands and Thailand during the years 2014–2018. The cooperation explored the mycological and microbiological biodiversity of Europe and Southeast Asia with regard to the search for the badly needed new antibiotics and other biologically active secondary metabolites. The project was conducted to foster international collaboration networks, know-how exchange and interdisciplinary training of young scientists. The first two years of the project were mainly dedicated to field work, and several hundreds of fungal cultures have been isolated from material mostly collected in Thailand. These fungal strains were characterized by morphological and molecular phylogenetic methods and several new taxa were discovered. The cultures underwent screening for antimicrobial and nematicidal metabolites and a number of bioactive metabolites have already been found, isolated and characterized. Several large phylogenetic studies have already been published that resulted from the project work. The results were also brought to the attention of the scientific community as well as the general public through various dissemination events. Based on the tremendous success of this project, a follow-up project application including additional partners from Africa and further European countries has recently been filed and approved, and the international, interdisciplinary collaboration will now continue in the new RISE-MSCA-Project (acronym “Mycobiomics”).