Special Issue "Bioactive Compounds from Marine Fungi"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Johannes F. Imhoff
Marine Mikrobiologie, IFM-GEOMAR, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel und Kieler Wirkstoff-Zentrum KiWiZ, Am Kiel-Kanal 44, 24106 Kiel, Germany
E-Mail:
Phone: +0431/600-4450 / -4451
Fax: +0431-600-4452

Dear Colleagues,

Nature continues to be most important in the delivery of new drugs or lead structures and the oceans are important sources of structurally unique natural products. Among the biota from the oceans marine-derived fungi are an outstanding source for secondary metabolites, many of which have highly complex structures, making them difficult to be supplied economically via chemical synthesis.

Fungi derived from marine sources are considered to represent a huge reservoir of secondary metabolites, many of which are biologically active and are produced e.g. by multifunctional enzyme complexes such as polyketide synthases (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS). Marine fungi are highly potent producers of bioactive substances with antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, cytotoxic and immunosuppressive activity. The various biological activities make them a valuable source for pharmaceutical applications.

From an ecological point of view fungal secondary metabolites may act specifically in interspecies interactions to protect the host and/or the producer against competitors and/or diseases. On the other hand, fungal metabolites are considered of great importance in the ecology of marine communities and the analysis of fungal genetics, fungal physiology and fungal natural compound profiles will be essential to understand the interrelationships between fungi and their environment.

In addition, the rapid progress in genomic information significantly stimulates the search for secondary metabolite producers and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. It greatly improves our knowledge on the potential of secondary metabolite production in fungi and already has demonstrated that fungi encode the genetic information for the biosynthesis of many as yet unknown compounds.

This is good reason to devote a special issue of Marine Drugs to the bioactive compounds from marine fungi.

Prof. Dr. Johannes F. Imhoff
Guest Editor

Submission

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs).

• marine fungi
• fungal genomics
• polyketide synthases
• non-ribosomal peptide synthesis
• antitumoral activity
• antibiotic activity
• fungal secondary metabolites
• secondary metabolite biosynthesis
• fungal secondary metabolites
• fungal interactions
• fungal drugs