Peptides from fungi

Many of the listed nonprotein amino acids have been identified as components of nonribosomal peptides from fungi and sponges. Hence, they tend to exhibit antifungal and antimicrobial properties, and in some cases potent cytotoxicity is observed. Specific details on known nonprotein amino acids are given in Table 1. 

Antimetabolites and Antitumor Peptides Peptides from Fungi... 

Most peptide antibiotics have been isolated from Jictinomycetes and especially from Streptomjces. Many P-lactams, however, and a few other useful peptide antibiotics have come from fungi. These streptomycete and fungal peptide antibiotics include many stmctural types having varied therapeutic indications and/or scientific appHcations. 

Zervamicin IIA, a hexadecapeptide antibiotic isolated from fungi, forms ion channels in phospholipid bilayers. When it was spin-labelled at the C-terminal end with tempamine, PELDOR measurements in glassy toluene methanol gave average distances between the spin labels in the aggregates of 25-35 A, depending on solvent composition, which indicated that the peptides oriented in anti-parallel fashion.51... 

WielandT. The toxic peptides from Amanita mushrooms. Int J Pept Protein Res 1983 22 257-276 Karlson-Stiber C, Persson H. Cytotoxic fungi-an overview.Toxicon 2003 42 339-349... 

The use of biologically derived chemicals as herbicides has met with limited success. Despite this, biotechnology offers potential for the exploration of naturally occurring compounds as herbicides, which may serve as impetus for new synthetic and structure/function approaches in herbicide developement (1). In this regard we have implemented a program to study biologically active peptides from plants and fungi. Specifically, we focused on phytotoxic cyclic... 

Less frequently, conventional chemical peptide synthesis has been used to produce the entire apo-MT protein (when the amino acid sequence is relatively short) or in the production of the separate MT domains. Thus, the metal-binding features of synthetic MTs from fungi " or the individual domains of crustacean and mammalian MTs have been characterized. Additionally, as peptide synthesis provides the methodology for a facile sequence modification, studies on designed MT-related peptides have also been carried out. ... 

Biologically Active Peptides from Microorganisms and Fungi... 

A number of peptides of animal origin were shown to play a role in cancer therapy as antimetabolites. Later, several peptide antibiotics were demonstrated to have similar properties. One of these, cyclosporin A (5), produced by certain fungi imperfecti, was shown to prevent attack on host tissues by transplanted cells (Sneader, 1985). Another series of peptides from Streptomyces verticillus, of which bleomycin A2 (Fig. 14.2) is the main component used clinically, has pronounced antitumor activity. The most striking feature... 

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