Induced production of cytochalasans in co-culture of marine fungus Aspergillus flavipes and actinomycete Streptomyces sp.

Abstarct Secondary metabolites profiles of co-culture of Aspergillus flavipes and Streptomyces sp. that isolated from the same habitat showed an induced production of a series of cytochalasans (five aspochalasins and rosellichalasin, determined by MS and NMR analysis). These cytochalasans were found to be produced by A. flavipes in LC-MS comparison analysis, and biological activity assays revealed that they were able to cause cytotoxic effects against Streptomyces sp. within a wide range of concentrations without causing any effect to the producer A. flavipes, which favoured the producer in competition. Further induction mechanism study applying membrane-separated culture and morphology study with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) suggested that the successful induction of active secondary metabolites required microbial physical contact.