Recent and future discoveries of pharmacologically active metabolites from tropical fungi.

Abstract

This article focuses on the identification of pharmacologically active metabolites from tropical fungi that can be used as antiviral, antifungal and antiprotozoal agents, insecticides, and insulin mimetics. The capture and engineering of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes from nature and their heterologous expression in a surrogate fungus for discovery of new natural products are illustrated. Obstacles to commercialization of tropical fungal metabolites are discussed.