From joint-research with the Harvard Medical School, SKKU’s research team led by Prof. Ki Hyun KIM of the School of Pharmacy successfully found 2 new natural materials from the symbiotic microorganism which was isolated from termites living in the Republic of South Africa. 

Explorations of the bacterial symbionts of phylogenetically diverse insects have repeatedly led to biologically active natural products with interesting chemical scaffolds. The bacteria often provide small molecule chemical defenses that selectively inhibit the insects’ microbial competitors and pathogens. The small molecule defenses found in current studies reflect the numerous rounds of mutation, selection, and amplification between the insects’ defenders and antagonists.

In this research, the team put their efforts on finding selective agents from bacteria associated with Macrotermes natalensis through a systematic combination of LC−HRMS-based dereplication and bioactivity assays against the basidiomycete cultivar (Termitomyces spp.) and an ascomycete competitor (Pseudoxylaria spp.). As a result of these studies, the actinomycete Amycolatopsis sp. M39 was found to exhibit both a unique metabolomic profile and promising anti-Pseudoxylaria activity.

They now report the isolation and structural characterization, biosynthetic analysis, and biological activity of four new macrolactams isolated from Amycolatopsis sp. M39. Two of the four exhibited selective inhibition of the Pseudoxylaria pathogen over the Termitomyces cultivar.

“I hope the identification of selective antifungal compounds can demonstrate the potential of using ecologically relevant assays to identify biologically active compounds further”, said Prof. KIM.

This article was published in the March edition of Organic Letters by American Chemical Society and was also supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.