Parasitic Production of Ergot Alkaloids

Nemeth E( 1999) Parasitic production of ergot alkaloids, hi Kren V, Cvak L (eds) Ergot the genus Claviceps. Harwood Academic, Amsterdam... 

Biological, non-parasitic production of ergot alkaloids is carried out by saprophytic cultivation of production strains of different species of the genus Claviceps. The saprophytic cultivations of Claviceps spp. were experimentally performed as early as in the last century (Bove, 1970). Mycelial saprophytic cultures in nutrient media were reported since the 1920s (Bonns, 1922 McCrea, 1931 Schweizer, 1941 De Tempe, 1945). These experiments provided the basis of cultivation of the fungi Claviceps under artificial nutritional conditions but did not yet serve for alkaloid production or were not reproducible (McCrea, 1933). 

The infection material for inoculation has been mentioned by Nemeth in Chapter 11 Parasitic production of ergot alkaloids . Asexnal sporesconidia—are exclusively used as a source of the primary infection in the parasitic prodnction of ergot. When the infection inocnlation material is to be prepared, the saprophytic cultivation aims at obtaining the maximnm amonnt of vital infectious spores. Nutritional sonrces and the cnltivation process itself are adapted to support growth and differentiation of hyphae to obtain massive conidiation. 

Spalla C. Generic problems of production of ergot alkaloids in saprophytic and parasitic conditions. In Vanek Z, Hostalek Z, Cudlfn J, eds. Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms. Amsterdam, London, New York Elsevier, 1973, pp 393-403. 

Hulvova H, Galuszka P, Frebortova J, Frebort I (2012) Parasitic fungus Claviceps as a source for biotechnological production of ergot alkaloids. Biotechnol Adv (in press)... 

As a theoretical alternative seems a method according that strains, which produce ergot alkaloids saprophytically, are preserved as sclerotia formed on an infected, proper host plant, e.g. rye for strains of the species Claviceps purpurea. Viability of the sclerotia when stored in refrigerator is several years. Questions of contingent changes of strain prodnction characteristics due to alternation of saprophytic and parasitic phases were treated by Breuel and Brann (1981), and Breuel et al. (1982). During surface stationary production of peptide alkaloids it was possible to keep production strain in the form of dried mycelinm at 4°C for 3 years without any influence to prodnction capability (Kybal, Malinka, unpublished results). 

There are currently two medicinally valuable alkaloids of commercial import obtained from ergot. Commercial production involves generation parasitically on rye in the field or production in culture because a commercially useful synthesis is unavailable. The common technique today (65) is to grow the fungus in submerged culture. Clavicepspaspali (Stevens and Hall) is said to be more productive than C. purpurea (Fries). In this way, eigotamine (100,... 

Plant tissue culture technique provides completely controlled conditions to elucidate the growth and physiology of the cells and to study host-parasite interactions at the cellular level. There exists probably single paper on this interesting technique in ergot research on cultivation of C. fusiformis on a Pennisetum typhoides cell culture. The authors (Roy and Kumar, 1985) established the methodology and studied nutritional demands of the mixed culture with respect to the growth and alkaloid production. 

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