LAUSR

Fungi are bound up with human life. Although some species are pathogens threaten to human and plants, most of them are beneficial to human, which have been used in food (such as making of cheeses and bread), drinks (such as making of beer and wine), and medicines (e.g. Ganoderma Lucidum) for thousands of years. They have played a key role in satisfying people’s demand for healthy. Based on the latest viewpoints, the total fungal species on the earth are estimated to be about 12 million, but only about 24% of them have been described . In addition, each fungus possesses multiple biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). For instance, each species of Ascomycetes can contain up to 80 BGCs in its genome . If each BGC accounts for one specific secondary metabolite (SM) , there will be a tremendous number of structurally diverse molecules in fungi kingdom waiting to be mined, which would be important sources for drug discovery. In the past decade, fungi-derived natural products with novel skeletons recorded in the “Hot off the Press”. In 2019, the proportion of the natural products discovered from fungi has reached the same level as that of plants, which suggests that fungi have become a major source for searching novel molecules in drug discovery. For chemical defense against other living organisms, furthermore, fungi would produce bioactive SMs. Up to now, a number of SMs with potent antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal, antioxidant, immunosuppressive, and anticancer properties have been found from fungi, and some of them have been directly or indirectly developed as famous drugs for clinical treatments. Not only to drug discovery, fungi are also beneficial to nutraceutical and functional food industry. Various products referring to the mycelium or fungal fruiting bodies of fungi (such as G. Lucidum, Cordyceps sinensis) have been consumed in the form of capsules, tablets, powder, etc. In addition, some fungal SMs have been identified as potential functional ingredients in food and nutraceuticals . Researches on the SMs from these fungi would promote the upgrading of existing products and the exploitation and utilization of new resources. In this issue of Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines (CJNM), we are pleased to organize several foundation research papers on SMs from various fungi, including marine fungi, plant endophytic fungi, and mushrooms. QI Shu-Hua et al. [9] reported an unprecedented Fe (III) chelator of coprogen-type siderophore (mycosphazine A) composed of L-ornithine and D-ornithine units from the fermentation broth of the deep-sea-derived fungus Mycosphaerella sp. SCSIO z059 collected at a depth of 1330 m from Okinawa Trough sediment, and mycosphazine A showed promoting the biofilm formation of bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens with the rate of about 249% at 100 μg·mL. Four new 16-methyl steroids (penicildiones A−D) were isolated from a marine soft coral-derived fungus Penicillium sp. SCSIO41201 collected from the soft coral Sinularia sp. by LIU Yong-Hong et al. along with a known 16-methyl steroid and two known phenylspirodrimanes (stachybotrylactone B and stachybotrin), and it was the first report for stachybotrylactone B showing significant cytotoxic activities against HL-60, K562, MOLT-4, ACHN, 786-O, and OS-RC-2 cell lines with IC50 values of 5.23, 4.12, 4.31, 23.55, 7.65, and 10.81 μmol·L, respectively. SHE Zhi-Gang et al. isolated three new isocoumarin derivatives ((S)-6,8-dihydroxy-5-(methoxymethyl)3,7-dimethylisochroman-1-one, (S)-6,8-dihydroxy-3,5,7-trimethylisochroman-1-one, and (R)-2-chloro-3-(8-hydroxy-6methoxy-1-oxo-1H-isochromen-3-yl)propyl acetate) from a mangrove endophytic fungus Penicillium sp. YYSJ-3 collec[Received on] 23-Feb.-2020 [Corresponding author] E-mail: [email protected] These authors have no conflict of interest to declare. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com