Acremonium associated with

The ancestral strain of Acremonium chrysogenum (at that time called Cephalosporium acremonium) was isolated on the Sardinian coast in 1945 following an observation that the local sewage outlet into the sea cleared at a quite remarkable rate. Advances were slow because the activity was associated with a number of different types of compound. Cephalosporin C was first isolated in 1952, but it was a further decade before clinically usefiil semisynthetic cephalosporins became available. 

Two new diterpenic glycosides, virescenosides M 9 and N 10, were isolated from the marine fungus Acremonium striatisporum KMM 4401 which was associated with the holothurian Eupentacta fraudatrix. They both exhibited cytotoxic action against tumor cells of Ehrlich carcinoma in vitro, and showed a cytotoxic effect on developing eggs of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius. 

Solomons RN, Oliver JW, Linnabary RD. Reactivity of dorsal pedal vein of cattle to selected alkaloids associated with Acremonium coenophialum infected fescue grass. Am J Vet Res 45 942, 1989. 

Watson RN, Hume DE, Bell NL, Neville FJ. Plant-parasitic nematodes associated with perennial ryegrass and tall fescue with and without Acremonium endophyte. Proc NZ Plant Protect Conf 48 199-203, 1995. 

A close relationship between eporulation and secondary biosynthesis by Streptomyces kanamyceticus (14) and in Streptomyces bikiniensis was described (l5). Non-sporu-lating variants were obtained with acriflavine treatment which lost the ability to produce the antibiotics. If it is assumed that the structural genes of the biosynthetic pathway are localized in chromosome, the deletion of ex-trachromosomal DNA may cause a loss of the ability to produce an endogenous inducer. Induction of the enzymes governing the formation of secondary metabolites would thus be closely associated with the expression of other traits, particularly sporulation. This fact was observed by Drew et al. (16) induction of cephalosporin C formation in Cephalosporium acremonium by methionine was ac-companied by arthrospore formation. 

Some other terpenoids were isolated from fungi associated with sponges. A series of anti-inflammatory sesquiterpenes and chlorinated merosesquiterpenes were isolated from an Acremonium sp. associated with a Korean Stelktta sp. collected around Jeju Island (Zhang, P. et al, 2009). 

The fungus Acremonium striatisporum (strain KMM 4401), associated with the sea cucumber (Holothuroidea) Eupen-tacta fraudatrix, can be cultured to produce two new diterpenic altrosides, virescenosides M and N, as well as the three virescenosides A, B, and C previously known and... 

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