Fungi antibiotic production

Monaghan RL, Cinrie SA (1985) Preservation of antibiotic production by representative bacteria and fungi. Dev Ind Microbiol 26 787- 792... 

In 1923 Raistrick began a series of pioneer investigations on certain metabolic products of fungi. The products studied appear to have been selected mainly because they could be readily isolated in crystalline form. A number of these products were found in 1942 to be antibiotics, but only... 

Fermentation. The commercial P-lactam antibiotics which act as starting material for all of the cephalosporins ate produced by submerged fermentation. The organisms used for the commercial production of the penicillins and cephalosporins ate mutants of PenicU/in chTysogenum and Cephalosporium acremonium respectively (3,153,154). Both ate tme fungi (eucaryotes). In contrast, the cephamycins ate produced by certain species of procaryotic Streptomyces including Streptomyces clavuligerus and Streptomyces lipmanii (21,103). 

In the production of antibiotics, sufficient growth of fungi in submerged cultures has created potential sources of biomass as SCP and as flavour additives to replace mushrooms the biomass contains 50-65% protein.1,5 Production of mushroom from lignocellulosic waste seems to be a suitable and economical process since the raw material is inexpensive and available in most countries. 

The Shikimate pathway is responsible for biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids in bacteria, fungi and plants [28], and the absence of this pathway in mammals makes it an interesting target for designing novel antibiotics, fungicides and herbicides. After the production of chorismate the pathway branches and, via specific internal pathways, the chorismate intermediate is converted to the three aromatic amino acids, in addition to a number of other aromatic compounds [29], The enzyme chorismate mutase (CM) is a key enzyme responsible for the Claisen rearrangement of chorismate to prephenate (Scheme 1-1), the first step in the branch that ultimately leads to production of tyrosine and phenylalanine. 

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