Cold-adapted fungi as a source for valuable metabolites

Filamentous fungi, bacteria, especially actinomycetes, plants, algae and many other kind or organisms can produce a vast array of different extrolites. Extrolites is an ecological term for outwards directed metabolites that potentially can play a role in the interaction between organisms (Frisvad et al. 2004, 2007).

The collective metabolic term for these compounds is the exometabolome. Many extrolites are secreted, but some stay in the cell wall to protect the fungal, bacterial or plant spores or seeds. Plants, including those from Arctic and alpine areas, protect themselves from herbivores by producing an array of secondary metabolites (Palo 1984; Bryant et al. 1991).

In the sea surrounding Antarctica there are many chemical interactions between mollusks and amphipods, algae, urchins and anemones, and between sponges and their predators (Amsler et al. 2001), and in Arctic ecosystems there are indications that secondary metabolites also play a role in the chemical interactions between species (Chapin III et al. 1992).

However, these potential interactions have not been studied in any detail in microbiological systems.