Untargeted metabolomics based on molecular networking aiming the valorization of the fungi colored compounds

• Grant number: 22/14603-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): April 03, 2023
• Effective date (End): March 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Silvério da Silva
• Grantee: Fernanda de Oliveira
• Supervisor: Pieter C. Dorrestein
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/09175-4 - BIOREFINERY AS A PLATFORM FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FUNGAL COLORANTS, BP.PD

Abstract

Much interest has been brought to fungal colorants owing to their broad-spectrum of industrial applications coupled with their pharmacological potential. There are many opportunities aiming the valorization of the bio-based colorants, including new chemical structures with pharmacological value identification for the development of high-value niche markets. Even though these compounds are widely explored, the literature still lacks comprehensive investigations aiming to predict the synthesis and to explore the structural classes of these colored metabolites related to biological activity. Molecular networking (MN) has become a popular data analysis method for untargeted mass spectrometry MS/MS-based metabolomics. Thus, defining both stoichiometric composition and structural classes of the secondary metabolites are central to predicting microbial metabolic processes. In this way, this proposal aims to perform a foundational untargeted molecular analysis of a specific fungi exometabolome using liquid chromatography-tandem MS to examine compounds produced by Talaromyces amestolkiae. These data will provide molecular-level insights into chemotaxonomic knowledge on fungi colorants-producer and illustrates how changing cultivation substrates influences natural products with biological activity biosynthesis with implications for microbial metabolism. To this end, a deeper chemical investigation of the T. amestolkiae extrolites and mapping its chemical traits can be of great value in metabolic pathway prediction. (AU)