Fungal-Actinomycete Interactions - Wakening of Silent Fungal Secondary Metabolism Gene Clusters via Interorganismic Interactions

Traditional methods in microbiology applied for drug discovery focus on investigating microorganisms in monoculture, thereby separating these organisms from their habitat including accompanying microorganisms. Recent studies have indicated that intra- and interspecies communication can trigger the production of silent gene clusters leading to novel compounds. Many of them are believed to have functions as infochemicals in microbial communication. Thus, co-cultivation of microorganisms represents a promising approach to discover novel antibacterial and antifungal compounds in the involved species. Here, we summarise the recent development on fungal - streptomycete interactions successfully applied to wakening fungal secondary metabolite gene clusters and isolating novel natural products. This edition first published 2014